OVP’s flagged funds breached plunder threshold – lawmaker

VP Sara Duterte composite image from Inquirer stock and House of Representatives of the Philippines photos

MANILA, Philippines — There is no politics in investigating Vice President Sara Duterte’s office budget flagged by state auditors as the probe was initiated because the funds involved exceeded the plunder threshold, Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua said on Wednesday.

During the hearing of the House committee on good government and public accountability, panel head Chua presented figures showing how much of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) confidential funds (CF) were either flagged or disallowed by the Commission on Audit (COA).

The COA issued a notice of disallowance on P73 million of the P125-million CF of the OVP for 2022 and flagged P164 million of the P375-million CF for 2023. These monetary values, Chua said, exceeded the P50-million threshold for plunder.

“This committee is, understandably, very alarmed at these reports implying misuse of public funds, in particular, because of the astronomical, almost unimaginable amount of money involved,” Chua said in his opening speech.

“I must stress at this point that the sheer vastness of these potentially misused funds sets this matter apart from other instances of irregularity and disallowance. These amounts easily surpass the threshold for the crime of plunder under our laws,” he added.

Chua also noted that the committee must probe these issues.

“It is incumbent upon us, who are duty bound to ensure that our legislation and regulations are effective enough to protect the money of the people, to investigate and get to the bottom of these glaring irregularities,” he said.

Last Sept. 10, Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe said Duterte may be held liable for graft if she cannot explain the transactions flagged by COA.

READ: VP Sara Duterte may be liable for graft – Dalipe

During the first hearing of the committee on good government and public accountability, Nueva Ecija 1st District Rep. Mikaela Angela Suansing showed an audit observation memorandum (AOM) issued against parts of the OVP’s CF for 2023.

Suansing noted that for the first quarter of 2023, P67 million of the P125-million CF of the OVP was questioned in the AOM, as well as P62 million in the second quarter and P35 million in the third quarter.

In all, the COA flagged P164 million, or 43.73 percent, of the P375 million CF allocation spent in 2023.

READ: Sara Duterte’s confidential fund spending raises new, more doubts

On Wednesday, the OVP released a letter from Duterte dated September 23 and addressed to Chua, saying that the committee hearing was “unnecessary” and was merely based on “unsubstantiated allegations” made by Manila 2nd District Rep. Rolando Valeriano.

Duterte said such claims can be “easily verified” through accomplishment reports submitted by the OVP and COA reports.

READ: Sara Duterte to skip ‘unnecessary’ House probe into OVP funds

The committee conducted an inquiry on the OVP’s budget utilization after Valeriano delivered a privilege speech last Sept. 3, questioning the presentation made by Duterte during the deliberations on the OVP’s proposed budget for 2025.

According to Valeriano, the OVP stated in their 2025 budget proposal that there are 977,615 beneficiaries for their socioeconomic programs, but he believes it cannot be ascertained if the beneficiaries are real people and not ghost beneficiaries.

READ: OVP urged to prove financial aid beneficiaries are real

During the budget deliberations, it was also revealed that some OVP programs suffered from low utilization, like in the case of Magnegosyo Ta Day where only 0.04 percent of funds, or P600,000 out of P150 million, were used as of December 2023.