Sara Duterte impeachment trial Day 14: Unusual names in confidential fund list, disbursements with 'zero' results

The House prosecution team on Tuesday lamented that they were allegedly stood up by the defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte after they were directed by the Senate impeachment court last week to meet to compare documents related to confidential funds.

The direct examination of private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan on Commission on Audit's (COA) Xylene del Campo proceeded after almost one hour.

Del Campo, who is from COA's Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO), took the witness stand to testify about the disbursements of confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) during Duterte’s tenure.

Prosecution

Del Campo testified on the COA’s affirming of a notice of disallowance (ND) it issued on the OVP’s 2022 disbursement of P73 million out of P125 million confidential funds in 2022, saying that Duterte and two other OVP officials are responsible for such release, marred by lack of documentary evidence of payment, success in gathering confidential information and evidence that will prove that supplies were indeed purchase for a confidential operation.

An ND is issued when an expenditure is “either irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant, or unconscionable" and orders the concerned agency to return such amount to government coffers.

Del Campo said the 2022 OVP disbursement of its confidential funds even included reimbursements of its December 13 to 18 expenses from Christmas parties, tree planting, and thanksgiving activities which occurred before December 21, or the day the OVP received its P125 million confidential fund allocation.

In addition, Del Campo said the COA issued an ND on the entire P375 million in confidential funds disbursed by the OVP for 2023 because the office's special disbursing officer, Gina Acosta, transferred her mandate to distribute the funds to Colonel Raymund Lachica of the Vice Presidential Security Group.

Del Campo invoked Joint Circular 2015-01 governing the use of confidential and intelligence fund which states that “cash advances for confidential or intelligence fund should be drawn by duly designated and bonded SDOs or head of agency for the implementation of a program, activity, and project chargeable to the corresponding confidential or intelligence fund of the agency, upon approval of the head of agency."

It added that, “under no circumstance shall it be used for liquidation of the previous cash advance or be transferred from one accountable [officer] to another.”

Likewise, Del Campo testified that OVP’s P375 million confidential fund spending in 2023 went to certain Miggy Mango, Jay Kamote and Matthew Keso, among others, and that such disbursements were not backed up by documentary evidence as required by the 2015 Joint Circular.

The ND issued by the COA on the P375 million confidential fund disbursement stated that certifications and Protective Intelligence Operations reports did not specify the particular accomplishments demonstrating the success of the information gathering and/or surveillance activities directly related to the confidential operations undertaken as required by Item 4.8.5.b of the Joint Circular that necessitated the payments of reward.

Further, the same ND states that the Vice President and three other OVP officials are responsible for such improper fund disbursement.

DepEd

For the P75 million confidential fund of the DepEd, Del Campo said that these were marked by three batches of disbursement covering Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao all within the same day.

The prosecution panel said this disbursement pattern is physically impossible and would make DepEd SDO Eduard Fajarda like "Superman," who can fly to many places, since the Joint Circular only allows either the head of the agency or the SDO to disburse the confidential fund.

Del Campo also cited Fajarda’s earlier admission in a House inquiry that he transferred the duty of disbursing confidential funds of the DepEd to Colonel Dennis Nolasco, a violation of the 2015 Joint Circular.

Still, Del Campo said that the DepEd’s disbursement of its P75 million confidential fund for the first quarter of 2023 is in order since COA’s evaluation did not find any irregularity so far.

Del Campo, however, also said that such initial evaluation or issuance of a credit notice can still be revoked if new evidence is unearthed within the three years since the credit notice.

Defense

Defense team spokesperson Michael Poa welcomed Del Campo’s findings on DepEd confidential fund disbursements, saying this has been their point all along.

Poa also said that the ND issued by the COA on OVP’s P375 million confidential fund disbursement is still subject to appeal.

Impeachment court

Senator-Judge Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri on Tuesday suggested moving the impeachment trial in the afternoon to give the prosecution and defense teams more time to present their arguments.

Zubiri said that the legislative session at the Senate may be conducted at 10 a.m. instead, considering that it may last only for a few hours.

After the session, he said that the trial may begin at 3 p.m., “so that we are not hampered by our legislative calendar.”

Impeachment court spokesperson Regie Tongol on Tuesday said that it is up to the senator-judges to explain their absence from the impeachment trial to the public. —With reports from Giselle Ombay/LDF, GMA News