Vice President Sara Duterte (Noel Pabalate/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Testify under oath and directly address the alleged misuse of millions worth of confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs). 

Several ranking members of the House of Representatives issued this challenge to Vice President Sara Duterte on Saturday, Oct. 19 amid what they called her latest attempt to divert from these controversies. 

Sharing this sentiment were Deputy Majority Leader Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre, Assistant Majority Leader La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega V, and Assistant Majority Leader Nueva Ecija 1st Rep. Mika Suansing. 

“This is a clear misuse of public funds. The Vice President claimed her office spent millions on activities already fully funded by the military. Why lie about where the money went? We need to know what the OVP (Office of the Vice President) did with these funds,” Acidre claimed. 

It was learned during Thursday’s hearing of the House Committee on Good Government that the Department of Education (DepEd) had falsely claimed to the Commission on Audit (COA) that it used P15 million of its CIFs in connection with eight youth leadership summits (YLS).  

Apparently, it was the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and local government units (LGUs) that shouldered most of the expenses for the YLS in 2023, despite DepEd’s claim that its CIFs were used. At that time, Duterte was still the DepEd secretary. 

Acidre said that Duterte’s use of AFP certifications to justify her office’s spending misled auditors and the public. “This is not just about accounting errors; this is deception. Using the military to cover up the improper use of confidential funds is an egregious act." 

Another controversy that was tackled Thursday was the P16 million was spent by the OVP on 34 safehouses in just 11 days in late December 2022--a figure that, like the P15 million, remains unexplained. 

Although Vice President Duterte attended the first hearing of the committee last month, she refused to take an oath and left early. The panel, chaired by Manila 3rd district Rep. Joel Chua, had held two more hearings since. 

“We are still waiting for the Vice President to explain the need for 34 safehouses in less than two weeks. The public has a right to know why ₱16 million of their money was spent so dubiously,” said Ortega. 

The La Union solon noted that Duterte’s failure to provide transparent answers about these safehouses and the misrepresentation of DepEd CIF utilization only raises more eyebrows. 

He reiterated the need for her to testify under oath in the next hearing and come clean about these expenditures. 

“If there’s nothing to hide, she should testify under oath. This is public money, and the Filipino people deserve transparency and accountability. No more evasions, no more squid tactics,” Ortega said. 

For Suansing, the ongoing investigations regarding the alleged misuse of OVP and DepEd funds under Duterte "puts the Vice President’s leadership into question". 

"Particularly concerning are the OVP disbursements, which the [COA] has disallowed, and the alleged delivery of spoiled milk and nutribuns to public schools,” Suansing said. 

“We implore the Vice President to instead focus on working with all of us for the welfare of the Filipino people,” the congresswoman further said.