House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez | PHOTO: Official Facebook page of the House of Representatives of the Philippines
Speaker Martin Romualdez on Thursday chided Vice President Sara Duterte for sending her officials to explain how she spent P612.5 million in confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) instead of doing this herself before a congressional inquiry.
It was the first time that the leader of the 300-member House of Representatives, who has been described pejoratively by the Vice President, spoke publicly and critically about her continued refusal to appear before lawmakers inquiring into her alleged misuse of public funds.
“She should now appear, take the oath, speak and explain,” Romualdez said. “She shouldn’t let her officials at the OVP and DepEd handle (the explanations). She should be the one to speak.”
Romualdez said Duterte was “maybe the only one who knows what happened to the funds, so she should explain.” He spoke with reporters on the sidelines of the Albay leg of Thursday’s “Tabang Bicol-Tindig Oragon” typhoon assistance rollout.
The House committee on good government and public accountability is looking into the use of the confidential funds allocated to the OVP and DepEd, both of which have no direct law enforcement and national security mandates.
READ: Sara Duterte’s secret fund spending ‘a violation twice over’
It has been established in previous hearings that the OVP spent confidential funds totaling P125 million in just 11 days in December 2022. It spent another P375 million of the P500 million it was allocated in 2023 and P112.5 million of DepEd’s P150 million in confidential funds in the same year when she was still the education secretary.
‘Human shields’
Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe called out the Vice President for using her officials as “human shields” in avoiding accountability for the alleged misuse of confidential funds.
“It is about time she faces Congress, answer the questions, and stop blaming others for her failures and fear of accountability,” the Zamboanga City lawmaker said.
He dismissed as “yet another budol (scam) tactic” Duterte’s claim that her staff and officials did not deserve the scrutiny of the House. “The Vice President has been hiding while letting her staff take the heat. This is pure cowardice disguised as victimhood,” he said.
Duterte only attended one hearing, where she refused to take the truth-telling oath and promptly left after reading a prepared statement from her mobile phone.
“Instead of addressing the questions head-on, Vice President Duterte spins a narrative to paint herself as a victim of political persecution,” Dalipe said. “The truth is, this isn’t about politics—it’s about accountability. … The continuous evasion and attempts to shield her actions only prove there’s something Duterte doesn’t want the public to know.”
VP’s top aide detained
The Vice President’s most senior aide, OVP Chief of Staff Zuleika Lopez, is being detained at the House for contempt for alleged “undue interference” in the House’s oversight function on the use of the OVP’s confidential funds by telling the Commission on Audit (COA) not to hand over audit reports to the House inquiry.
Arrest orders had been sent out for four other senior OVP officials for snubbing the committee hearings.
The supposed rift between Duterte and Romualdez began last year after her close ally, Pampanga Rep Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was removed as senior deputy Speaker.
Duterte promptly left the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats Party, which Romualdez heads, after Arroyo was stripped of the title.
The House subsequently blocked the allocation of confidential funds to civilian offices, particularly the OVP and DepEd, in the 2024 budget. Since then, Duterte has taken potshots at Romualdez and the House.
‘So shameful’
During a press conference in October, she accused the Speaker and Ako Bicol Rep. Elizalde Co, the head of the House appropriations committee, of “meddling” with the national budget.
She said Romualdez had received a bribe from another country. “So shameful,” she said, without elaborating.
On Wednesday night, the House said Lopez will remain in detention until Nov. 25. It reiterated its directive to arrest the OVP bids and awards committee head Lemuel Ortonio, special disbursing officer (SDO) Gina Acosta, and spouses Sunshine Charry and Edward Fajarda, who had all skipped the inquiry since it began.
Edward Fajarda was the DepEd’s special disbursing officer, tasked with handling the agency’s P112.5 million confidential funds in the first three quarters of 2023. His wife, Sunshine Charry, was assistant secretary when Duterte was the education secretary.
The Fajarda couple transferred to the OVP when Duterte resigned as education secretary in July this year.
Voucher signatory
Ortonio was the signatory to the OVP’s confidential fund disbursement vouchers and checks cashed every quarter from December 2022 to September 2023 and disbursed by Acosta.
Manila Rep. Joel Chua, the good government panel chair, cited Lopez in contempt for “undue interference in the conduct of the proceedings” through her alleged evasive answers to queries throughout Wednesday’s 10-hour hearing.
He also cited her Aug. 21 letter asking the COA to defy a House subpoena for its audit reports on the OVP’s P500-million confidential funds from the last quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023.
Other committee members expressed frustration over Lopez’s claim that she was not privy to key matters, including the use of confidential funds, in the OVP despite being Duterte’s most senior aide.
READ: Makabayan bloc vows to question Sara Duterte over confidential fund use
Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop observed that her correspondence with the COA showed familiarity with the details of the transactions.
Lopez maintained that only Duterte and her designated SDO, Acosta, knew how the OVP’s confidential funds were used, claiming that the OVP was so “compartmentalized” that one office did not necessarily know what another office was doing.
“In the OVP, although I am the undersecretary and the chief of staff, I am purely handling operational concerns. There are areas, for example, that I am not privy to, one of which is the matter of confidential expenses,” she said.
In a statement on Thursday, Deputy Minority Leader France Castro said Lopez was “directly knowledgeable” about how confidential funds were used and her letter to the COA was “a categorical objection to the House investigation, showing their determination to impede our constitutional mandate of oversight.” —WITH REPORTS FROM KATHLEEN DE VILLA AND DEMPSEY REYES