House recommends perjury, corruption charges vs Sara Duterte

Vice President Sara Duterte — Photo from Inday Sara Duterte/Facebook

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives has adopted the report of the committee on good government and public accountability, which recommended the filing of criminal charges against Vice President Sara Duterte and other officials from her office over the alleged misuse of confidential funds (CF).

During the session on Tuesday, committee chairperson and Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua read the panel’s recommendations, which include the filing of the following charges against some past and present officials of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd):

• technical malversation
• falsification and use of falsified documents
• perjury
• bribery and corruption
• plunder, betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution

Chua’s report shown at the plenary did not specify who will be charged for technical malversation, falsification, and plunder, but a copy of the committee report showed who should be held liable.

Technical malversation: Duterte, OVP special disbursement officer (SDO) Gina Acosta, DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda, for using confidential funds for purposes other than for confidential activities.

Perjury: Duterte and OVP SDO Acosta, for having a notarized certification that the the funds were used for necessary and legal purposes in the relation to the agency’s confidential activities as signed by the Head of Agency and special disbursing officers.

Bribery and corruption: Duterte, DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda, and other DepEd officials, for offering white envelopes containing money other than salaries, to employees of DepEd.

During the committee hearing last November 25, Acosta admitted to lawmakers that she left the disbursement of the OVP’s CFs to Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) chief Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, who was assigned with managing confidential funds.

When Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro pressed further, asking Acosta if she understood the possible repercussions of her actions, the OVP official eventually admitted that it was Duterte who directed her to leave all CF transactions and disbursements to Lachica.

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

Prior to this, Fajarda said that a security officer designated by Duterte was the one responsible for disbursing the CFs.

Fajarda said it was Col. Dennis Nolasco, a security officer at the OVP.

READ: Security officer picked by VP Duterte disbursed confidential funds 

On September 25, former Education undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado meanwhile said that she received envelopes containing money from Assistant Secretary Sunshine Fajarda — wife of SDO 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.

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.

The hearings of the committee were a huge factor in the filing of impeachment complaints against Duterte. Last February 5, 215 lawmakers filed and signed a verified complaint, containing articles that referred to the initial findings of the committee.

During the course of the committee hearings, lawmakers discovered weird names signing off acknowledgement receipts (ARs) for the confidential expenses made by Duterte’s offices.

ARs are submitted to the Commission on Audit to prove that funding for projects reached its intended beneficiaries, which in this case, are confidential informants.

Antipolo City 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop noticed that one of the individuals who signed the ARs was named Mary Grace Piattos — a name similar to a restaurant and a potato chip brand.

Later on, Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong showed two ARs — one for the Office of the Vice President and another for the Department of Education — which were both received by a certain Kokoy Villamin. However, the signatures and handwriting used by the Villamin in the two documents differed.

Both names were also not found in the Philippine Statistics Authority database. /das