Vice President Sara Z. Duterte during her press conference at the Office of the Vice President, Robinsons Cybergate Plaza, Mandaluyong City. —Inquirer photo/Lyn Rillon
MANILA, Philippines — Two Department of Education (DepEd) officials told lawmakers that they had received tens of thousands of pesos in cash from Vice President Sara Duterte last year when she was still the education secretary, appearing to corroborate a previous testimony from another DepEd official that handing out money was a common practice in DepEd on her watch.
DepEd director and former bids and awards committee (BAC) chair Resty Osias told a hearing called by the House good government committee on Thursday that he had received four envelopes containing a “minimal amount” of P12,000 to P15,000 on four separate occasions in 2023.
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‘Scolded’ by boss
The envelopes, he said, were handed to him by then Education Assistant Secretary Sunshine Fajarda, who did not attend the hearing.
“I thought it was a common practice in the department. The very first time I encountered that matter was sometime in April of 2023,” Osias said. “I didn’t know why I was summoned to the office of Asec. Shine. Then I was given an envelope and later on I found out there was money in it.”
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Osias clarified that he was not yet a BAC member at the time.
Former DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa, who has transferred to the Office of the Vice President (OVP), also admitted that he had “occasionally” received envelopes containing cash both from Fajarda and from Duterte herself.
Poa said he was “scolded” by Duterte for using his own money to assist individuals seeking help from DepEd.
Osias did not say, and the House panel members did not ask, what the money was for. Poa gave unclear reasons for what the money was intended, citing one occasion during “Christmas time,” suggesting that it may have been for gifts.
Manila Rep. Rolando Valeriano asked Osias whether he also received money after former Education Undersecretary Gloria Mercado testified on Sept. 25 that she had received nine envelopes from Duterte containing P50,000 each while she was head of DepEd’s procuring entity.
Confidential funds
Mercado said she donated the total P450,000 to a nongovernmental organization and showed the panel members the envelopes.
The lawmakers have not yet determined how many other DepEd officials, if any, had also received money from Duterte.
The DepEd officials’ testimonies, Valeriano said, could help shed light about where the confidential funds of DepEd under Duterte had gone, and also highlight the impropriety of high-ranking officials handing out cash gifts to their employees, especially to those involved in procurement.
Valeriano noted that it was “good timing” that Osias stopped receiving such envelopes around September 2023, when there was increased public scrutiny into Duterte’s use of confidential funds.
This and other suspected irregularities surrounding the use of secret funds of DepEd and the OVP prompted House lawmakers to call on Duterte to testify under oath and explain where her office used millions of taxpayer money.
In a statement, House Deputy Majority Leader Jude Acidre of Tingog party list, House Assistant Majority Leader Mikaela Suansing of Nueva Ecija and House Assistant Majority Leader Paolo Ortega of La Union said she should stop “diverting and using squid tactics” to evade questions from the lawmakers.
Safe house rentals
Apart from the revelations about the cash envelopes, the House panel found that the OVP spent P16 million in rentals for safe houses in just 11 days in 2022, including two that amounted to P1 million each. The money was part of the OVP’s first and controversial confidential kitty of P125 million spent in that 11-day period in December that year.
In addition to the P125 million given to Duterte as confidential funds in 2022, she also received P150 million as education secretary and P375 million as Vice President.
In 2023, DepEd spent P16 million in confidential funds as “payment for informers” and used certifications from military-related activities to justify the expense.
‘This is deception’
Philippine Army officers involved in the youth leadership summits cited by DepEd said the military and several local governments and other agencies—not DepEd—covered the expenses.
“Why lie about where the money went? We need to know what the OVP did with these funds,” Acidre said. “This is not just about accounting errors; this is deception. Using the military to cover up the improper use of confidential funds is an egregious act.”
Normally, safe houses are used by law enforcement and military units for clandestine operations or shelter for important persons or witnesses.
In some instances, however, safe houses are used as secret detention facilities where alleged state agents torture suspected insurgents who had been captured or abducted, as had been reported in the 1970s and 1980s during the martial law regime of dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Right to know
For these reasons, lawmakers and other critics of Duterte are questioning the OVP’s spending for safe houses since the Vice President is not mandated to conduct law enforcement and security operations.
Ortega said the public had a right to know why there was a need for 34 safe houses that were apparently used in less than two weeks and why P16 million was “spent so dubiously.”
“This is public money, and the Filipino people deserve transparency and accountability. No more evasions, no more squid tactics,” he said.
Suansing said the ongoing House panel investigations regarding the alleged misuse of the OVP and DepEd funds under Duterte “puts the Vice President’s leadership into question.”
Acidre and Suansing also expressed disappointment over Duterte’s recent public remarks, especially about wanting to cut off President Marcos’ head and dumping the remains of his father into the West Philippine Sea.