Vice President Sara Duterte (Noel Pabalate/ MANILA BULLETIN)

The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability is looking at a total of P612.5 million in potential misuse of confidential funds under Vice President Sara Duterte. 

Thus, said panel chairman Manila 3rd district Rep. Joel Chua during the resumption of the investigation Tuesday, Nov. 5 on the alleged misuse of the secret funds that had been allocated to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) during Duterte's tenure as agency secretary. 

The figure gave a bigger scope to what Chua described as “improper” and “unexplained” expenditures across two years. He questioned whether or not the funds were responsibly used for their intended purposes. 

“Sa totoo lang, P612.5 million ang kabuuang confidential funds ang ibinigay sa OVP at DepEd sa loob ng dalawang taon. Nasaan na ngayon ang P612.5 million? Sino ang gumastos nito at para saan ito ginastos?” he asked. 

(The truth is that the confidential funds given to the OVP and DepEd the past two years was P612.5 million. Where is this P612.5 million? Who spent this and for what was this spent on?) 

“Marahil, pwede nang masabing improper ang gamit sa confidential funds ng mga ahensiyang ito....Upang mas mabigyan pa tayo ng linaw, nararapat na masagot ang katanungang ito: anong nangyari sa pera ng taong bayan?” he further asked, setting the tone for the rest of the hearing. 

(Perhaps, we can already say that these agencies have improperly utilized the confidential funds...For the purpose of clarity, this question must be asked: what happened to these public funds?) 

Of the P612.5 million under investigation, P500 million pertains to the OVP’s confidential funds allocations, while P112.5 million went to DepEd. 

The OVP received a total of P625 million in confidential funds for late 2022 and all of 2023, with the Commission on Audit (COA) reviewing P500 million of this amount and noting significant irregularities.  

Tuesday's hearing of the good government panel was the fourth on the topic of confidential funds misuse by the OVP and DepEd. 

Vice President Duterte served as DepEd Secretary from June 30, 2022 until her resignation on July 19 2024. 

While the lady official could theoretically have all the information that the House members want to hear, she only attended the first hearing of the committee. During this lone appearance, she refused to take her oath and left the proceedings early. 

Chua had earlier said that the good government panel--often referred to as the House equivalent to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee--won't be citing Duterte in contempt. Chua said this was in deferrence to her post, which is the second highest in the land. 

Chua noted that only a few officials have come forward to testify, while the key figures directly responsible for confidential funds disbursements have yet to appear before the committee. 

This has left representatives of COA as the main resource persons in the hearings. 

In December 2022 alone, the OVP spent P125 million in just 11 days—from Dec. 21 to 31—or an average of P11.364 million per day. Of the amount, COA disallowed P73.3 million due to irregularities and ordered repayment from Duterte and two other OVP officials. 

Additionally, COA issued three Audit Observation Memorandums in 2023 as it highlighted adverse findings on OVP’s quarterly confidential funds use up to the third quarter. 

One of the confidential funds expenditures that raised eyebrows was the P16 million reportedly spent by the OVP on 34 safe houses over an 11-day period in 2022.  

Chua also flagged P15 million in confidential fund expenses reportedly allocated by DepEd to youth leadership summits (YLS) and other anti-extremism programs. These were allegedly justified through certifications from Philippine Army battalions, until army officials denied them during an earlier hearing.