House questions funds on OVP satellite offices

Invited resource persons from the Office of the Vice President take their oath at the resumption of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability’s probe on how funds of the OVP and Department of Education under then Vice President Sara Duterte were used. In photo are, from right, OVP Chief Accountant Julieta Villadelray, OVP Director for Administrative and Financial Services Atty. Rosalynne Sanchez, former OVP Budget Division Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Jerome Tenido, and Ma. Edelyn Rabago (from the OVP Budget Division). —Inquirer photo/Lyn Rillon

MANILA, Philippines — Nearly half of the 2023 and 2024 budgets of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) was spent on the setup and upkeep of its satellite offices nationwide, according to an OVP official who testified on Monday before a House inquiry into Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged misuse of her confidential and other funds.

The House committee on good government and public accountability also cited for contempt four other OVP executives who continue to ignore its summons. This prompted Duterte, who was in Bacolod City on Monday, to hold a press conference, criticizing the inquiry as a prelude to a plan to have her impeached.

READ: House panel excuses OVP legal chief after refusal to take oath

Testifying about the funds used for the satellite offices, Edelyn Rabago, the officer in charge of the OVP’s budget division, said P1.026 billion of the OVP’s 2023 budget and P893.36 million from its budget this year had so far been spent for these offices across the country.

The OVP has satellite offices in the following regions and provinces—Cagayan Valley, Pangasinan, Bicol, Panay and Negros islands, Eastern Visayas, Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, Caraga, Western Mindanao, Southern Mindanao; and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. It has two extension offices in Manila’s Tondo district and Lipa City, Batangas.

According to OVP chief administrative officer Kevin Gerome Tenido, the satellite offices were established in July 2022 “upon instruction of top management that OVP services will be extended to certain areas nationwide.”

Tenido pointed out that there was no explicit line item in the OVP’s 2022 budget for then Vice President Leni Robredo regarding the establishment of such offices.

According to him, when Duterte assumed office in July of that year, the funds for the satellite offices were sourced from the 2022 General Appropriations Act under the OVP’s good governance program, which covers all social services.

‘Staggering figures’

House Assistant Majority Leader and Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Angela Suansing noted that the Commission on Audit (COA) had observed a five-fold increase in the amounts for the satellite offices.

Among such budgetary items, she said, were travel expenses, some P60 million in office space rentals, and various supplies and professional services.

“The figures are very staggering: P1 billion for 2023 and probably… another P1 billion in 2024,” Suansing said. “This is very huge, almost half of the OVP budget taken up by the satellite offices.”

As for Duterte’s confidential funds, other OVP officials who attended the hearing confirmed that only two other people besides the Vice President—chief of staff Zuleika Lopez and special disbursing officer Gina Acosta—were privy to the disbursement of P500 million in confidential funds from the last quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023.

Tenido, OVP financial services director Rosalynne Sanchez, and chief accountant Julieta Villadelrey said they had no personal knowledge of the said funds.

Sanchez said Acosta reported to Lopez, who in turn reported directly to Duterte.

Contempt

The committee, chaired by Manila Rep. Joel Chua, cited in contempt Acosta as well as bids and awards committee head Lemuel Ortonio and couple Sunshine Charry and Edward Fajarda, former assistant secretary and special disbursing officer, respectively, at the Department of Education at the time it was headed by Duterte.

But OVP chief of staff Lopez was given another opportunity to appear before the panel.

Lopez had sent the committee a letter dated Nov. 9 explaining that “Contrary to public insinuations, I did not [leave] the country to avoid attending the hearing. I sincerely apologize if this impression was conveyed; however, I was attending to a medical emergency involving my aunt in the United States.”

House Deputy Speaker and Quezon Rep. David Suarez said, “Maybe we can extend a little bit more… understanding” to Lopez.

But he questioned the travel orders Ortonio had granted to the Fajarda couple “on the same day of the [House] hearing.”

Duterte, in her press conference, said her officials “were merely traveling [to] different OVP events” because of its 89th anniversary on Nov. 15.

‘Impeachment case’

“One of them went to Cebu, another one went on a trip to Caraga to prepare for a possible typhoon in December,” the Vice President said. “The other two went to a thanksgiving activity.”

She added: “Even I would not be at the central office after Nov. 16 because of the thanksgiving activities of our satellite offices.”

She also said the House inquiry was merely “fault finding.”

“You are looking for mistakes because you want to file an impeachment case [against me],” Duterte said.

Kicked out

One OVP official who sought to testify before the committee was instead kicked out of that hearing after she refused to take an oath before her planned testimony.

OVP legal affairs department chief Emily Torrentira, who was not invited to the inquiry, said she was appearing before the panel to represent the OVP.

But her refusal to take an oath, similar to Duterte’s actions when she appeared before the inquiry in September, prompted the committee to bar Torrentira from its proceedings and have her escorted out of the House by personnel of the sergeant at arms. —with a report from Gillian Villanueva