OVP secret fund spending ‘a violation twice over’

VP Sara Duterte —HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PHOTO

The notice of disallowance (ND) by the Commission on Audit (COA) against P73 million out of the P125-million confidential funds spent by Vice President Sara Duterte in 2022 brought out more questions than answers, as it was revealed that a large amount was spent on things that did not involved security, according to a constitutional law expert.

For lawyer Michael Henry Yusingco, Duterte’s spending of confidential funds constituted a “violation twice over”—first because the Office of the Vice President (OVP) is not mandated to use such funds, and second because of a COA joint circular that regulates the specific activities and items for which the secret funds could be used.

Her only one job

These violations, he said, have legal bases as well: the 1987 Constitution, which requires that public funds should only be spent for specific purposes; and the 2015 joint circular among several government agencies, including the COA and the departments of budget, local government and national defense, which specifies expense items allowed to be charged against confidential funds.

“In the first place, it was not appropriate to give the Vice President confidential and intelligence funds,” said Yusingco, senior research fellow at the Ateneo Policy Center of the School of Government of the Ateneo de Manila University.

“Precisely because the Vice President only has one job, which is to be ready [to take the place of the President]. The Vice President has no responsibility to do charity work or to whatever public service that Vice President Duterte wants to do,” he said. “In fact, that is the job of other departments.”

READ: Submit report on VP’s secret funds, COA told

He said that confidential funds should not have been given to the OVP.

“And now, we find that it wasn’t even spent for intelligence gathering and law enforcement operations. So, it’s a violation twice over, a double violation,” Yusingco said, referring to the millions of pesos also spent by the OVP for chairs, tables, medicine and food aid.

Return the money

The ND covering the P125-million confidential fund spent in just 11 days—from Dec. 21, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2022—was submitted by the COA to the House panel on appropriations, which subpoenaed the report ahead of the OVP’s budget deliberations on Tuesday.

The Aug. 8 ND essentially orders the OVP to return the money to the government—though there is a process of appeal. It disallowed at least P69 million of the P73 million for “nonsubmission of documents evidencing the success of information gathering and/or surveillance activities to support the acknowledgment receipts for payments of rewards in cash, various goods, and medicines.”

The total amount was for the following: P10 million for rewards payment; P34.857 million for payment of reward (various goods); and P24.93 million for payment of reward (medicines).

Likewise, the COA said that P3.5 million of the disallowed P73 million was used to pay for “tables, chairs, desktop computers and printers without specifying that they were intended for the confidential operations/activities undertaken by the OVP.

No accomplishments

The COA said that this was “noncompliant with the requirement” of the 2015 joint circular rules on the use of confidential funds.

The COA reminded the OVP that while rewards and “purchase of supplies” were among those allowed by the joint circular, “the two expenses are separate and distinct from each other.”

At the same time, the COA noted that the OVP’s list of 105 activities attended or conducted by the OVP within that 11-day time frame “did not indicate the particular accomplishments for the successful information gathering and/or surveillance activities that are directly related to the specific confidential activities undertaken by the agency.”

“Consequently, we cannot verify if the payment of rewards substantiated the success of that agency in its information gathering and/or surveillance activities in view of the information provided by the informants,” it said.

The OVP’s confidential fund spending was a hard lesson for Congress, which “should by now have learned that it was important to stick to the regulations when it comes to allocating public money or public funds,” Yusingco said.

In 2023, when ties between Duterte and President Marcos had not yet soured, the House of Representatives even defended the OVP’s use of confidential funds and let her office’s budget slide quickly through deliberations, while blocking opposition to it.

Shield it from politics

Yusingco said the circular on the use of the confidential and intelligence funds should be followed by Congress.

“And they should not set it aside for political accommodations, which is what they did with in the case of the Office of the Vice President and the (Department of Education) in 2022,” he said.

Whether the OVP’s spending could be considered an impeachable offense as some critics have suggested, “remains to be seen,” Yusingco said.

“First off, when we talk about impeachable offense, you’re talking about betrayal of public trust,” he said. “It’s different in this particular instance. We’re just talking about one quote-unquote offense, which is the failure to use confidential and intelligence funds appropriately.”

“Now, is that going to fit the frame of impeachable offense? That has to be thought out some more,” Yusingco said. “Given the past impeachable offenses that we know of, particularly President Erap’s (former President Joseph Estrada), it seems that it doesn’t yet fit that frame of impeachable offense.”

Castro: Enough basis

For ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, what has been revealed by the COA report is enough ground for impeachment, a matter exposed to public view during the Aug. 27 House hearing where a combative Duterte opted to “forgo” of the opportunity to have next year’s OVP budget defended in the chamber.

Still the talk of the town days later, the hearing showed the Vice President’s spite in full display, as she cried political persecution amid rumors that the House, dominated by President Marcos’ allies, had been plotting to impeach her.

“It’s becoming apparent that Duterte was banking on the supposed veil of secrecy around confidential funds to hide her unlawful use of people’s money. This is a clear betrayal of public trust,” Castro said in an Inquirer interview on Thursday.

“It cannot be that you can get away with wrongdoing. There should be accountability. [In] splurging confidential funds at the time when there are not enough funds for public services, and in refusing to answer to the people, there is a clear basis for impeachment,” she added.