Uncharted waters: House tries to extract accountability from Dutertes

Graphics by: Samuel Yap / INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Seasoned staffers of the House of Representatives, along with reporters covering the beat for a long time, know not to be overly confident when the month of August comes.

They have covered many budget seasons with different outcomes — reenactment, pork issues, and realignments — but there was no telling what’s in store in a year.

Discussions on the 2025 General Appropriations Bill remained gripping but little did the public know that what was about to transpire in August 2024 would be so important that it would push the budget deliberations to the sidelines.

The quad committee

When the Executive turned over the P6.352 trillion National Expenditures Program for 2025 to the House, the focus was on how to manage allocations despite limited resources.

However, attention soon turned to the quad committee, a super panel created to check on different but seemingly intertwined issues linked to the past administration.

On August 6, 2024, Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales delivered a privilege speech calling on the House to adopt House Resolution (HR) No. 1880 calling on four committees to investigate illegal activities linked to Pogos, the illicit drug trade, and the alleged extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in the past administration’s drug war.

READ: House OKs reso tasking panels to jointly probe Pogo, drugs, EJK issues

In the first half of 2024, these four committees were conducting separate hearings: the House committee on dangerous drugs had its eyes set on an anti-drug operation in Mexico, Pampanga where over P3.6 billion worth of shabu was found, while the committee on public order and safety was looking at concerns that some police officers were not adhering to standard operating procedures during anti-drug operations.

For the House committee on public accounts, questions involving land acquired by Chinese nationals in Pampanga — suspected to be possible sites for Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) — were tackled.  Eventually, the committee on human rights, upon prodding from progressive groups and the Makabayan bloc, investigated former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.

While the quad committee’s scope of discussions was the subject of debate, there was no doubt that the four panels drew a lot of attention due to the personalities involved in the investigation..

Controversial may be an insufficient word to describe discussions at the first quad committee hearing in Bacolor, Pampanga last August 16.

Rodrigo Duterte’s son, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte was implicated by former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban in illegal drug smuggling.

According to Guban, former environment undersecretary Benny Antiporda sent an emissary — former Presidential Task Force on Media Security director Paul Gutierrez — to warn him that he will be killed if he mentioned the names of Representative Duterte, his brother-in-law Manases Carpio, and businessman Michael Yang as involved in the missing shabu shipment in 2018.

READ: ‘Don’t name Paolo Duterte, Mans Carpio, Yang in 2018 shabu import mess’

The illegal drug shipment, concealed inside magnetic lifters, was supposedly smuggled into the country right under the noses of Customs officials.

READ: 1 ton of shabu worth P6.8B eludes PDEA, PNP

Representative Duterte denied knowing Guban, noting that the former Customs official cannot be considered a credibie witness because he was cited in contempt by the Senate before.

READ: Rep. Duterte denies knowing Guban, calls him not credible as witness

At one point in the hearings, former police colonel Royina Garma admitted that former president Duterte messaged her in May 2016-after the ex-leader won the presidential race — about building a task force to implement a rewards system in the drug war, just like what was done in Davao City.

According to Garma, the so-called Davao template involved providing cash rewards worth P20,000 to P1 million to cops who kill drug suspects.

READ: Garma says Davao drug war template, rewards system applied in entire PH

After 12 hearings, the quad committee came out with recommendations to charge Duterte, former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and now Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, former special assistant to the president and now Sen. Christopher Go, among others, for violating Republic Act No. 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity.

This was for their role in implementing the drug war.

READ: Quad comm seeks crimes against humanity raps vs Duterte, Bato, Bong Go

Showdown

As the quad committee was doing its thing, the House committee on appropriations started deliberating on the proposed P6.352 trillion national budget for 2025.

The appropriations panel’s hearings came while tensions ran high within the Uniteam camp — the campaign tandem of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte. Last April, Marcos’ wife, First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos admitted in an exclusive interview on Tune-in Kay Tunying that she has been snubbing Sara Duterte after the Vice President was seen laughing when former president Duterte called Marcos a drug addict.

While the president and the vice president said that the ill feelings of the first lady would not affect working relations, Duterte eventually resigned from her post as education secretary.

Under a House headed by a Romualdez, a showdown between the two families and their allies seemed inevitable: last August 27, Duterte went into the lion’s den — before the appropriations committee — to address criticisms and alleged plans to impeach her.

The House leadership denied such plans.

When lawmakers asked the vice president about confidential funds (CF) lodged in the Office of the Vice President (OVP), Duterte merely replied by saying that she forgoes “the opportunity to defend the budget in a question-and-answer format”, and adding that she is leaving it up to the House to decide on the budget.

Duterte’s refusal to reply to lawmakers led the committee to defer deliberations on the OVP’s budget to another date. However, neither Duterte nor the OVP showed up in the next hearing, which prompted the committee to cut the office’s budget from P2.037 billion to P733 million.

READ: Duterte refuses to answer OVP budget questions, sparks House tension

With Duterte’s actions and Commission on Audit (COA) reports showing irregularities in many CF expenditures in the  OVP, Manila Rep. Rolando Valeriano delivered a privilege speech asking the House committee on good government and public accountability to investigate the issues.

Other lawmakers — ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, Ako Bicol Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon, and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro — also separately called for an investigation into the Department of Education (DepEd) transactions due to different revelations on procurement problems.

READ: Solons want probe into different issues hounding DepEd

Ghosts from the past

The Dutertes, especially the vice president, faced one of their toughest questions in September as the investigation of the House’s blue ribbon committee uncovered different anomalies.

On September 25, former education undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado claimed that she received envelopes containing money from Assistant Secretary Sunshine Fajarda supposedly coming from Vice President Duterte.

Mercado said that she believed the envelopes were meant to influence her as she used to head DepEd’s procuring division.

READ: Alleged ‘envelopes’ from Duterte may have aimed to influence ex-DepEd Usec

Further, Mercado said that she was asked by Duterte’s chief-of-staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, to resign.  Mercado said this request from Lopez came after she opposed suggestions from former Education Assistant Secretary Reynold Munsayac that bidders in the computerization program should just “discuss among themselves” the fate of the bidding.

“It was as if I had become an unwelcome obstacle, despite simply doing my job as undersecretary of DepEd. Prior to my meeting with Ms. Zuleika, there were other undersecretaries and assistant secretaries who were also summoned, all with the same purpose of informing them that they should tender their resignation effective on the same day,” Mercado said.

READ: Ex-DepEd exec: VP Duterte’s staff asked me to resign over purchase issue

Duterte, however, dismissed Mercado’s testimony, saying that the former DepEd official was just a disgruntled employee who was removed for soliciting money from private companies.

Mercado clarified, however, that the issue raised by Duterte was actually an official government program — a system that would have allowed Duterte to contact teachers wherever she may be.

READ: Ex-Usec Mercado: No money solicited in official DepEd program

Mary Grace Piattos, impeachment

Aside from Mercado’s testimony, the House blue ribbon committee also revealed that there were acknowledgment receipts (ARs) for CF expenditures that bore the name Mary Grace Piattos, which Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop (second district) noted appears to be the combined names of a famous coffee shop and brand of chips.

Eventually, Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong showed two CF receipts-one for OVP and another for DepEd — which were both received by a certain Kokoy Villamin. However, the signatures and the handwriting of Villamin differed.

READ: House probe: OVP, DepEd CFs received by same man, different signatures

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) then said that the names Mary Grace Piattos and Kokoy Villamin do not exist in their live birth, marriage, and death registry.  Further, PSA said that they have no records of the more than 400 names found on receipts for the DepEd’s CFs.

READ: No PSA records of 400 names in DepEd secret fund’s receipts – solon

Blue ribbon committee chair and Manila Rep. Joel Chua warned the public that, however, he was more concerned about the possibility that the receipts were faked. Apart from that, there were also revelations that special disbursing officers (SDOs) assigned to OVP and DepEd left the disbursement of CFs to security officials of the OVP.

Both SDOs-Gina Acosta for OVP and Edward Fajarda for DepEd — said that it was Vice President Duterte who ordered them to turn over the disbursement of CFs to Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) chief Col. Raymund Dante Lachica and Col. Dennis Nolasco.

READ: OVP exec: I left secret funds to security head as per VP Sara’s order

1-Rider Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez said he believed this act was tantamount to technical malversation.

READ: Solon: SDO’s move to give up fund release role may lead to malversation

The sum of the blue ribbon committee hearings’ revelations, along with claims that Duterte was also involved in EJKs, were considered in impeachment complaints filed by the private sector against Duterte.

As of writing, there are three impeachment complaints filed: first from civil society representatives endorsed by Akbayan Rep. Percival Cendaña; second from progressive groups led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, endorsed by the Makabayan bloc; and third from the religious sector, endorsed by Camarines Sur Rep. Gabriel Bordado and Aambis-Owa Rep. Lex Colada.

READ: 3rd impeach rap filed vs VP Duterte; Leni Robredo ally an endorser

Threats

At the November 20 hearing of the blue ribbon committee, Undersecretary Lopez appeared to explain transactions made by the OVP. However, lawmakers grew frustrated over her claims that she was not aware of CF transactions made by their office, considering that she is the second-highest officer in the OVP.

Deputy Speaker David Suarez asked why Lopez insisted on her not knowing about the OVP’s CFs when she was named by OVP Director for Administrative and Financial Services Rosalynne Sanchez as knowledgeable. Later, Acop made the same observations, noting that Lopez’s letters to COA showed that she knew the ins and outs of OVP’s CF transactions.

Lopez was also scored for OVP officials’ absence during hearings, despite repeated letters from the committee.

READ: Solons quiz Lopez over claims she doesn’t know OVP secret fund deals

Due to these questions and issues, the panel decided to cite Lopez for contempt, for undue interference in the hearings.

This order would eventually intensify tension between the Dutertes and the Marcos camp: a day after Lopez was cited for contempt, the vice president went into the House premises to visit her chief-of-staff, who was detained inside the Batasang Pambansa complex.

But instead of leaving the area by 10:00 p.m., Duterte’s convoy went into the South Wing Annex to visit the office of her brother, Representative Duterte, supposedly to bring durian to the lawmaker.

READ: OVP staff enter Rep. Duterte’s office by claiming they will bring durian

The vice president then spent the rest of the night locked inside her brother’s office. Due to concerns about risks to Duterte’s security while she is inside the House premises, the blue ribbon committee decided to transfer Lopez to the Correctional Institute for Women.

This prompted Duterte to launch a press briefing early in the morning of November 22, cursing President Marcos, First Lady Araneta Marcos, and Speaker Romualdez. Afterwards, Duterte also said she had talked to someone about killing the three in case she got assassinated.

These threats triggered the National Bureau of Investigation to start an investigation of Duterte, while impeachment complaints were also based on this issue.  But with the House resuming session by January 13 and quickly adjourning by February 8 — and then returning in June after the midterm elections — it is unclear if there is enough time to tackle the complaints.

The Makabayan bloc remains optimistic that impeachment complaints against Duterte can still be discussed despite the limited time, as there is still a chance that it would be fast-tracked using an omnibus petition, where three-thirds of all House members, or 103 lawmakers, will file the complaint.

Should this happen, the complaint would go straight to the Senate which would act as an impeachment court.

Despite the different scenarios, it appears one thing is clear: 2025 will be just as busy, noisy, and nerve-wracking as 2024 for the House of Representatives, especially with the midterm elections just around the corner.