VP Sara Duterte, 2 OVP officials liable for P73-M confi fund disbursement —COA auditor

Vice President Sara Duterte and two other officials of the Office of the Vice President are liable for the disbursement of P73 million out of the P125 million confidential funds which was disallowed by state auditors for violating confidential fund use guidelines, state auditor Xylene del Campo said Monday.

Del Campo of the Commission on Audit’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO) made the testimony as witness for the prosecution during Day 14 of the impeachment trial of the Vice President in reference to the Notice of Disallowance (ND) issued by the COA to the OVP for its 2022 confidential fund disbursement.

An ND is issued by COA if an agency’s expenditure is “either irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant, or unconscionable.”

“Wala po itong mga resibo. Ang mga persons po na liable or responsible is, first po, the head of agency, Vice President Sara Duterte, the special disbursing officer, si Ms. Gina Acosta, at ang chief accountant po, na si Ms. Julieta Villadelrey,” del Campo, who has been working in COA for the past 11 years, said.

(These disbursements do not have receipts.)

Likewise, del Campo testified that the OVP liquidated its disbursement of its P125 million confidential fund in 2022 by submitting documents of expenses made during December 13 to 18, 2022 or way ahead of the day that the OVP received its confidential fund disbursement on December 21, 2022.

The submitted documents are for the following activities that predated the day that the OVP received its 2022 confidential fund:

• youth patriotism campaign;
• Christmas parties and activities; and
• thanksgiving gathering.

Del Campo said these expenses are not covered by Joint Circular 2015-01 which governs the use of confidential and intelligence funds, and could not be used to liquidate the disbursement of the P125 million confidential funds.

“These activities from December 13 to 18 are not covered by the period of utilization as stated in OVP’s accomplishment report,” del Campo said.

Senate Presiding Officer Francis "Chiz" Escudero then asked del Campo if this means the OVP cannot use confidential funds for disbursements from December 13 to 18.

Del Campo replied by saying, "Yes po. Under Joint Circular, there is also a portion which states that confidential fund cannot be used for reimbursement."

According to the ND issued by the COA to the OVP in 2022, at least P69 million of the P73 million disallowed involved the following: P10 million for reward payment; P34.857 million for payment of reward (various goods); and P24.93 million for payment of reward (medicines).

COA said that the OVP did not 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.

Likewise, COA said that P3.5 million of the disallowed P73 million “were used for payment for tables, chairs, desktop computers and printers without specifying that they were intended for the confidential operations/activities undertaken by the OVP, non-compliant with the requirement of Item 4.8.4 of the Joint Circular governing use of confidential fund.”

Duterte was impeached last May on allegations of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery, and other high crimes.

The Senate impeachment court is conducting a trial hearing on Tuesday on the alleged systematic misuse, 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. —KG, GMA News