Vice President Sara Duterte. Composite image from Inquirer file photos
LEGAZPI, Albay — Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on Thursday urged Vice President Sara Duterte to show up at the House probe into her office’s fund if she feels bad about her personnel having to answer questions on confidential fund (CF) expenses.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (BPSF) in Albay province, Romualdez was asked about Duterte’s recent statement that the biggest challenge for her now is seeing Office of the Vice President (OVP) officials supposedly being dragged into attempts to persecute her.
“Then she should have shown up and taken the oath, and talk and explain because all of her officials don’t seem to know…I think it’s only her who knows what happened with the funds,” he said in Filipino.
“That’s why she should explain, she should not give this responsibility to the officials. I hope she talks,” he added.
Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon and 1-Rider party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez aired the same sentiments, saying that Duterte should just show up at the hearings.
“These allegations and accusations will finally be settled if the good Vice President will appear before the committee on good government and public accountability because like what happened yesterday, no less than the chief-of-staff of the OVP was saying that she did not have anything to do with the confidential fund issue,” Bongalon said.
“If we will apply the process of elimination, it’s really Gina Acosta, Lemuel Ortonio, the Fajarda [couple], and of course the Office of the Vice President, the head of the agency which is VP Sara. They are the only ones who can give clarity to the questions raised by our fellow committee members,” he added.
For Gutierrez, Duterte’s claim that she is being persecuted is unfair since the House panel is only doing its job.
“We have seen where the questions are coming from. These do not come out of the blue,” he added. “So that’s why we’re having these questions thrown at her officials. Number one solution for them not to feel persecuted, according to them, is for them to hopefully participate. I don’t think … it wouldn’t drag so long.”
Duterte on Wednesday said the biggest challenge for her now is seeing politicians destroy even staffers just to get ahead of their opponents.
“Actually, my colleagues in the [OVP], if you can just see them, their situation is pitiful. They were dragged into moves to persecute me. Their work and names are affected. As I said, I am a politician and politicians would really destroy your name because there’s a race. To gain an advantage against opponents, they would really destroy their political competition,” Duterte claimed.
“But my colleagues at the OVP are not politicians. They are not even political officers, they were just accustomed to working… that’s really the delineation for the office; I am the politician, they work for the government. That’s also the reason why even our central office is being politicized,” she added.
During Wednesday’s hearing of the committee on good government and public accountability, several OVP officials, including Duterte’s chief-of-staff Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, were quizzed over the following issues involving CF expenditures:
- a person with the same name signing on OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) CF acknowledgment receipts but having different signatures
- Lopez and OVP Director for Administrative and Financial Services Rosalynne Sanchez denying knowledge of CF disbursements, despite Lopez signing OVP’s responses to CF-related issues
- high improbability of several disbursements across the country being made in a single day
- OVP allegedly hiding staffers involved in CF disbursements
READ: OVP exec warned: Interfering with House hearings merits contempt order
READ: Solon: OVP, DepEd release of CF to various areas daily is impossible
At the end of the hearing, Lopez was cited for contempt for undue interference as she wrote a letter asking the Commission on Audit (COA) to refrain from releasing audit observations to the House.
According to ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro, had the COA adhered to the request, it would have prevented the House from probing OVP’s records.
READ: House panel moves to cite OVP exec Lopez for contempt