Prosecution: VP Sara's violations on confidential fund spending remain despite appeal

The Office of the Vice President’s violations of the 2015 guidelines on confidential fund spending remain even as it appeals the Commission on Audit's (COA) notice of disallowance on P375 million in confidential funds it spent in 2023, the House prosecution team said Thursday.

House prosecution panel spokespersons Renee Co of Kabataan party-list and Zia Adiong of Lanao del Sur made the position when asked about Senator-Judge Juan Miguel Zubiri's call for COA to immediately resolve the OVP’s appeal, for better guidance in deciding the Vice President’s case.

A notice of disallowance (ND) is issued when an expenditure is “either irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant, or unconscionable" and orders the amount returned to government coffers.

Adiong said that whatever COA’s decision on the OVP’s appeal, it does not change the fact that the OVP violated the 2015 Joint Memorandum Circular guidelines—as testified by state auditor Xylene del Campo and two hostile witnesses, former OVP special disbursing officer Gina Acosta and OVP Assistant Secretary Lemuel Ortonio.

“Regardless if the fund has been restituted [returned], it does not condone the fact that she violated, from the very start, the Joint Memorandum Circular governing the use of confidential funds,” Adiong said in a press conference.

“Ortonio said he does not know how the confidential fund was spent, and that only two people knew: the Vice President and [former security chief Colonel Raymund] Lachica, and Lachica was not even the employee of the OVP,” he added.

Before the 2023 ND, the COA issued an ND on the OVP’s P73-million confidential fund spending in 2022, and affirmed this decision with finality last April.

Duterte accountable, say prosecutors

Co said that on top of the COA findings, other prosecution witnesses were able to establish that the OVP violated the 2015 guidelines.

“May plano po ba [ang OVP] sa bawat pag-request ng pera? ‘Yung pera, pagkatapos ba ay binibigyan ng audit report na maayos at walang anomalya? [Did the OVP have a plan how every time it made a request for money? And after they received the money, did they provide an audit report that was proper and without issues?]," she said in a press conference.

"COA rules and regulations deal with administrative functions, but the impeachment process takes stock if the acts of the Vice President constitute portrayal of public trust,” she added, referring to Ortonio's testimony that the OVP’s physical and financial plan on confidential fund spending did not include specifics on how the money would be spent.

“At the end of the day, si VP Sara ang may accountability dahil ‘yung pirma niya ay visible naman sa ating lahat,” Co said.

(At the end of the day, Duterte is the one who is accountable because her signature [on the liquidation documents for the confidential funds] is visible to all of us.)

Prosecution witness del Campo of the COA-Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office earlier told the Senate impeachment court that the COA issued the ND on the OVP’s P375-million confidential fund spending in 2023 because Acosta delegated her duty to disburse the fund to Lachica, an action prohibited by the 2015 guidelines on confidential fund use.

Acosta later said she did it on the instruction of the Vice President.

Likewise, del Campo said the OVP used the confidential fund for reimbursement for confidential activities that it already conducted ahead of them receiving their confidential fund allocation, an action that is also prohibited under the 2015 guidelines.

Acosta and Ortonio, for their part, testified that it was Lachica who disbursed and spent the P375-million confidential fund of the OVP in 2023 and the P125 million confidential fund of OVP in 2022, even though he was not an accountable officer.

Acosta also said there is no documentary evidence that the confidential fund was indeed received by Lachica.

Further, Ortonio also said that the request for confidential fund was the call of the Vice President, and that only the Vice President and Lachica knew about how the P500 million confidential fund of the OVP spanning from 2022 to 2023 were spent. — BM, GMA News