Vice President Sara Duterte —Photo from the House of Representatives
MANILA, Philippines — From rental payments for safe houses that dwarf what is paid for most five-star hotel overnight stays to spending for “youth leader summits” organized by the Philippine Army in cooperation with the Department of Education (DepEd), lawmakers on Thursday raised red flags on Vice President Sara Duterte’s use of confidential funds.
Duterte’s past spending sprees continued to be scrutinized by the House committee on good government for alleged misuse of public funds from 2022 to 2023 by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and DepEd when it was still led by her.
The lawmakers were shocked by the OVP’s use of P16 million in confidential funds (CF) to rent 34 safe houses from Dec. 21 to Dec. 31, 2022, with at least one safe house costing nearly P91,000 a day, according to the acknowledgment receipts (ARs) from the OVP to the Commission on Audit (COA) to justify its spending of P125 million in confidential funds in just 11 days.
Undated, unclear
The OVP repeatedly submitted ARs with rounded-off amounts, many of them undated or unclear whether the money was spent within those 11 days or in just one day.
The ARs were also either unsigned, or with the signatures illegible, or only contained the initials or the signatures of their recipients, and lacked supporting documents like lease contracts and other records.
One AR for P500,000 meant that the safe house cost P45,000 a day, “higher than the rates at high-end resorts like Shangri-La Boracay” where an overnight stay costs around P25,000, said the panel chair Rep. Joel Chua of Manila.
The OVP spent the same amount—P16 million—for safe house rentals in the first two quarters of 2023, but with significantly longer rental periods compared to those in 2022.
In the third quarter of 2023, the OVP spent P5 million for safe house rentals covering 79 days, bringing the total rental expenses across all four quarters to P53 million.
‘Very bare’ records
Asked by Manila Rep. Ernesto Dionisio Jr. what the COA used as a basis to audit the confidential funds apart from the AR, Gloria Camora, the team leader of the COA unit that audited the OVP’s CF, said they had “no information” as the records were “very bare.”
Confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) are subject to auditing rules that are different from regular funds under Joint Circular No. 2015-01 between the COA and several other government agencies.
The COA had earlier informed the House that it had issued a notice of disallowance (ND) against P73 million of the P125 million CF of the OVP in 2022. The amount covered P10 million in rewards payment; P34.857 million for rewards in the form of “various goods”; another P24.93 million for rewards in the form of “medicines”; and P3.5 million for tables, chairs, desktop computers, and printers with unclear confidential purposes.
P45,000 a day?
Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop questioned the COA why it didn’t bother to scrutinize the details of the ARs and merely did a “ministerial” checking of documents.
What kind of safe house?
“What could possibly be the kind of safe house that would cost P45,000 a day? When so many luxurious places probably won’t be as expensive as this?” Acop asked Camora. “Do you know if it’s a high-class safe house? Didn’t you wonder at all?”
They did wonder about the high amount, but these were covered by “liquidation reports,” Camora replied.
“So as long as an agency would submit the receipts in their liquidation of the amount, you no longer have the wherewithal or the jurisdiction to find out whether the expenditures are reasonable or true? Are you trying to tell us that?” Acop asked.
Camora concurred.
No representatives from the OVP showed up at the hearing, the third time they have been absent since the committee convened its probe on Sept. 18.
Turning to DepEd, the good government committee focused on spending on activities not directly related to school work by students and inquired about the more than P15 million “payment of informers” made in 2023.
YLS
The COA had issued an audit observation memorandum asking DepEd to explain how it spent P15.54 million in confidential funds to pay informers.
DepEd had billed the government that amount using four certifications from the Philippine Army, which indicated that DepEd participated in the Youth Leaders’ Summit (YLS), intended as a counterinsurgency effort involving children and youth.
Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro disclosed that DepEd submitted as supporting documents the certificates of eight YLS in various provinces, including Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Zambales, which were hosted by the Army even though DepEd did not spend for the staging of these summits.
Former DepEd Undersecretary Nolasco Mempin confirmed that he had asked for the certifications at former DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa’s behest to clear the agency of the P15.54-million disallowance from the COA. The Army’s certifications did not contain the cost of the summits but only the dates these took place and the number of participants, among others.
Prevented rebel ‘recruitment’
Luistro, Chua, and Bukidnon Rep. Keith Flores questioned why the education department would ask for certifications even if it did not stage the summits or spend for it.
In response, Poa said they considered the summits as “an achievement” in the use of DepEd’s confidential fund because the Army supposedly staged the summits “based on information they received from DepEd.”
He said the Army staged “targeted summits in areas susceptible to insurgency and we were able to prevent [students] from being recruited” by communist rebels.
“If the AFP was able to target, hold YLS and other programs because of information provided by DepEd, then that would show that it was successful,” Poa added.
“So what information did the DepEd provide?” Flores asked.
“I honestly don’t know,” Poa said. Dumbfounded by his reply, Flores responded: “Why would you be using the certification when it has nothing to do with DepEd, it was their (Army’s) own program. No matter how you look at it, it’s wrong.”
The OVP did not respond to the Inquirer’s request for comments on the issues raised during the House inquiry. However, Dutere’s office said she would grant media interviews on Friday.
‘Collaborative effort’
The Army confirmed that DepEd had no “direct contribution” to its youth leader summits in 2023.
Army spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala told the Inquirer by phone that “maybe they spent money for the participation of their regional or provincial offices in the summits.”
He said he was not privy to how much DepEd spent for its participation in the YLS.
Dema-ala said the YLS was “a collaborative effort as part of the whole of government approach in promoting leadership, security awareness, countering terrorism, New People’s Army recruitment, and ending local communist armed conflict.”
The summits were not funded solely by the Army but also by the concerned local governments and agencies that participated, he said.