Sara Duterte’s aide grilled over sealed acknowledgment receipts
MANILA, Philippines – An official of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) admitted on Wednesday that he was not able to see or verify the acknowledgement receipts for their office’s confidential funds (CFs) because they were handed to him in a sealed box.
The receipts were submitted as part of the OVP’s reply to the Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) issued by the Commission on Audit in relation to the agency’s confidential expenses, according to OVP Assistant Chief of Staff Lemuel Ortonio.
On Vice President Sara Duterte’s order, Ortonio said he drafted the reply in consultation with the OVP’s former security officer, Col. Raymund Lachica.
READ: OVP informants given secret funds to buy medicines, chairs – witness
But did he ask Lachica about the unusual names in the receipts?
“At that time po, Sir, I was not able to see the acknowledgement receipts, Sir,” Ortonio said in response to Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian’s question during Duterte’s impeachment trial.
Ortonio was also called to the witness stand by the prosecution team and was declared a hostile witness by the Senate impeachment court.
“The AOM indicated that we submit the DEPs or the documentary evidence of payments, Sir. So I was not able to see it, Sir. So yung binigay po sa akin ni Ms. Gina Acosta yung mga DEP, it was already in a sealed box and then we submitted that together with our reply to COA,” the witness went on.
(The AOM indicated that we submit the DEPs or the documentary evidence of payments, Sir. So I was not able to see it, Sir. The DEPs that Ms. Gina Acosta gave me were already in a sealed box, and we submitted them together with our reply to COA.)
Acosta was Duterte’s special disbursing officer and the prosecution’s first hostile witness in the trial.
When Gatchalian inquired how Lachica chose the OVP’s informants, the witness said he did not ask anymore because it was not the subject of the AOM.
To the senator’s query whether the DEPs were covered by the AOM, Ortonio said the OVP was required to submit the said documents.
“Tinanong nya ba sa kanya kung papano nya nakukuha itong DEPs?” Gatchalian asked again.
(Did he ask her how she obtained these DEPs?)
“I did not ask anymore, I just requested for the DEPs so that I can already submit it dun sa (the) COA as an attachment to the AOM reply,” the witness pointed out.
“Paano kung yung DEPs e peke? Pano kung yung kanyang narration sa’yo ay hindi totoo?” the Senate chief probed further.
(What if the DEPs were fake? What if the narration he (Lachica) gave you was not true?)
But Ortonio said he was confident that as security officer, Lachica was performing his duties properly, further noting that Duterte herself gave her trust and confidence to him to implement their confidential activities.
Senator-judge Francis Panglinan was not convinced by the explanation.
“Ang sabi nyo, nung natanggap nyo yung AOM, you went point by point sa mga issue, tama?Ang tanong, bakit hindi nyo binuksan yung sealed envelope dun sa ARs kasi andun lahat nungg mga acknowledgment receipts. Bawal ba?” Pangilinan asked.
(You said that when you received the AOM, you went through the issues point by point, correct? The question is, why didn’t you open the sealed envelope containing the ARs, since all the acknowledgment receipts were there? Were you not allowed to?)
The witness repeated his answer that the AOM only indicated that they had to submit the DEPs.
“So should you not have gone through the acknowledgment receipts to check because you’re being asked to submit the documentary evidence of payments and to check if the ARs are actually documentary evidence acceptable?” the senator asked again.
Ortonio later pointed out that as liaison officer, he was not in the position to open the sealed DEPs.
“In other words , you complied without going through the DEPs? How can you now tell if it was DEPs that you were submitting when you did not open the envelope? What were you submitting?” Pangilinan went on to say.
In the end, the senator hoped the witness could have exercised greater diligence in examining how government money was being spent. /jpv
