Hontiveros on OVP using confi funds to buy medicines as reward: Are informants sick?

Are informants of the Office of the Vice President sick?

Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros asked his question to prosecution witness and Commission on Audit’s Roderick Wamil after the state auditor testified that part of the OVP’s P125 million confidential fund allocation for 2022 were used to purchase medicines as rewards for informants.

Among the recipients of the 2022 confidential funds as stated in the Acknowledgment Receipts submitted by the OVP to COA is Mary Grace Piattos, who received P70,000.

“Pumunta naman tayo doon sa gamot. 'Di umanong gamot ang ibinigay na reward. So muli, sa karanasan po ninyo sa ICFAO and based on your expertise, normal po ba iyon na gamot ang kapalit ng intelligence information?” Hontiveros said during Day 13 of the impeachment trial of the Vice President.

Wamil responded that such payment of medicines as reward is not normal and the OVP doing so is unprecedented.

“First time po dito sa may OVP po [na gamot ang reward], Your Honor,” Wamil said.

This prompted Hontiveros to comment, “ito pa ‘yung palaisipan — kasi paano ‘yun, ‘yung mga informant po ba, most of the time, may sakit (Do informants have illness most of the time?”)

Wamil replied by saying, “I wouldn’t know po.”

Hontiveros pressed on Wamil by asking the witness what were the medicines for — asthma, hypertension, diabetes.

Wamil replied no.

Hontiveros also asked if the P70,000 confidential fund received by Mary Grace Piattos were in the form of medicines and if Piattos is suffering from any ailment.

Wamil replied he would not know because the OVP’s liquidation reports were incomplete, and their auditing is only based on OVP’s submissions to them.

At a separate press conference, Deputy Speaker Paolo Ortega V of La Union said that Wamil’s testimony is worrisome for the informants of the OVP.

“Nag-alala ako dun sa mga informant [na nakatanggap] ng confidential funds. Parang.,..baka may sakit sila lahat kasi gamot ang pinambabayad sa kanila,” Ortega said.

(I am worried about the informants who received confidential funds. Are they all sickly since they are being paid with medicines.)

“If I were in their shoes, I won’t receive medicine as payment. I would want a compensation because I am providing an important, very crucial information,” Ortega added.

COA has already issued Notice of Disallowance to the OVP for its disbursement of P73 million out of its P125 million confidential fund allocation in 2022 for over OVP’s failure to submit documents showing the success of information gathering and/or surveillance activities to support the acknowledgment receipts for around P69 million of payments of rewards in cash, various goods, and medicines to informants.

This ND on the P73 million confidential fund of the OVP was issued in 2024 and affirmed by the COA in 2026.

Wamil is a prosecution witness for Article 1, which accuses the Vice President of committing impeachable offenses due to systematic, misappropriation, and irregular liquidation of confidential funds amounting to P500 million released to the OVP and P112.5 million released to the Department of Education (DepEd) during her tenure as Education chief. — RSJ, GMA News