Vice President Sara Duterte (Facebook)

The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability has theorized that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) under Sara Duterte had scrambled to fix liquidation papers, resulting to a rather amusing "over-liquidation" of P23.8 million in confidential funds via alleged 158 “bogus and spurious” receipts.

Committee chairman Manila 3rd district Rep. Joel Chua brought this up during the recent hearing of the panel last Nov. 5 on the alleged misuse of the secret funds under OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte’s watch.

“So, what you’re saying is they (OVP) exceeded in their liquidation reports?” Chua asked 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez on his discovery of the agency's158 questionable lapses in documentation. 

“Your guess is as good as ours. It could also be that these ARs (acknowledgment receipts) were belatedly prepared,” Gutierrez--a lawyer by profession--observed, as he noted liquidation papers indicated a December 2023 date even when no confidential fund was disbursed in this period. 

All in all, the OVP submitted 158 acknowledgment receipts to the Commission on Audit (COA), covering various transactions.  

“For 158 people to make the same mistake, is that something that would be acceptable? Is that an acceptable margin of error for COA?” Gutierrez asked. “These are clear red flags in relation to the ARs submitted by the OVP, and this is something that we should consider (legislating).” 

No less than COA official Gloria Camora admitted before the committee that there may have been “inadvertence and typographical mistakes” committed by OVP personnel, where she also confirmed there was no CIF released in the third quarter of 2023, negating the need for ARs. 

“One of the findings under the COA notice of suspension is that some ARs were dated December 2023, and some were even undated. They (OVP) said they inadvertently contained clerical or typographical errors indicating 2023 instead of 2022,” she conceded. 

But Gutierrez was not convinced, noting the “red flags” it raised as they found the ARs to be “spurious and bogus” to say the least. 

“Didn’t you find it strange? Not really strange--it’s outright false for it to justify an expense for 2022 but the date is 2023," he said. 

To prove his point further, the lawmaker – one of the “Young Guns” members in the House – even showed ARs dated November 2022, when, in truth and in fact, confidential and intelligence funds were only disbursed a month later (December 2022) where the OVP spent P125 million in just 11 days. 

There were also ARs bearing not just similar handwritings and same color of ink in a common pattern, but also having the same set of signatories like a certain “AAS” and “JOV” who received a total of P280,000 and P920,000 “purchase of information", respectively,  allegedly in December 2022. 

There were a total of 776 ARs, 302 of which bore “unreadable names” with five “repeated names".

Mary Grace, Piattos

Antipolo City 2nd district Rep. Romeo Acop asked Camora, who heads COA’s intelligence and confidential funds audit office (ICFAO), if she was aware of a reputable restaurant named “Mary Grace” and a potato chip “Piattos,” since one AR bore the same name, with Piattos as its surname. 

For a breakdown, "AAS" received a total windfall of P280,000 – P60,000 in December 2022, P150,000 in February 2023 and P70,000 in the third quarter of the same year. 

But "JOV" was way, way much luckier with nearly a million pesos (P920,000) as his first AR for “reward payment” indicated P170,000, followed by P250,000 for vague “supplies” and the last was most substantial, P500,000 for “medical and food aid.” 

“More likely, this was the same mistake committed by perhaps a few persons. Which raises the question: Are these ARs spurious? Are they bogus? Are they false?” Gutierrez asked.

“We want to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. Accountability should be had on this," he further said.