Vice President Sara Duterte (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

House of Representatives members have highlighted the alleged misuse of P375 million worth of confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) on the part of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in 2023, as flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA).

Getting a bit of deja vu was Assistant Minority Leader 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez, who noted the P125-million confidential fund mess in 2022 that the OVP was also involved in. COA has flagged P73.28 million of these funds.

Gutierrez described COA's flagging of the OVP in 2022 and again in 2023 as a "repeated pattern of fund mismanagement".

The lawyer-solon noted that the utilization of P375 million CIFs has resulted in a Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) from COA, and that this could escalate into a Notice of Disallowance (ND), as what happened with the OVP's 2022 confidential fund disbursements.

Nueva Ecija 1st district Rep. Mikaela Angela “Mika” Suansing, vice chairperson of the Committee on Economic Affairs and an assistant majority leader, was the one who raised the AOM issuance during OVP budget hearing last Aug., 27, and again during the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability hearing Wednesday, Sept. 18.

Vice President Sara Duterte attended both hearings; however, she refused to address directly the issue on the AOM--or the ND for that matter-during her appearances.

During the Wednesday hearing, which was a proper congressional investigation in aid of legislation, the lady official refuses to take an oath.

“This repeated pattern opens the door for further audit scrutiny, and it’s only a matter of time before COA issues a formal [ND] for the P375 million 2023 budget,” Gutierrez said in a chance interview Wednesday.

An AOM serves as COA's initial flagging mechanism on an agency's utilization of funds.

"I think the basis was laid out properly, and nakita po natin sa initial deliberations pa lang (we saw in the initial deliberations), it’s unfortunate that we did not have the proper resource persons from the [OVP],” Gutierrez said.

"However, we were still able to ask the proper questions with COA. Although initial pa lang ito (this is just initial), it’s very telling kasi naging indication naman po (because there were indications), we had questions about the CIF during the budget hearing of OVP, and it seems that we have the same issues here."

The "Young Guns" bloc member reckoned that the OVP’s CIF for 2023 reflects the same deficiencies as those highlighted in the 2022 report, which he said "[indicates] a troubling lack of accountability and transparency in handling these funds".

“This is public money, not a personal slush fund. Repeated, templated reporting without detailed justification only raises suspicions of misuse," he said.

“When the same justifications are presented year after year for millions of pesos in taxpayer money, it raises serious questions about whether these funds are truly being used as intended or merely being spent without proper oversight,” Gutierrez added.

The OVP is still being hounded by its alleged spending of P125 million worth of confidential funds in a span of just 11 days in December 2022.

HAVE YOU READ THIS?

https://mb.com.ph/2024/8/20/easy-way-out-solon-with-harvard-degree-disagrees-with-vp-sara

Not just one AOM

Veteran lawmaker Antipolo City 2nd district Rep. Romeo Acop gathered from his interpellation a COA representative that not one, but two AOMs were issued to the OVP in connection with the 2023 utilization of the secret funds.

"Dalawang AOM ah. Tama ba ang aking pagka intindi ah na bawat quarterly disbursement ng OVP insofar as their confidential funds for 2023 are concerned ay may lumalabas na AOM galing sa inyo?" Acop asked.

(So there are two AOMs. Did I understand it correctly that each quarterly disbursement of the OVP insofar as their confidential funds for 2023 are concerned was issued an AOM from you?)

"Yes Mr. Chair, although yung first and second period ah pinagsama na po namin sa isang AOM (although we combined into one AOM the first and second period)," COA said.

When Acop asked if the COA found "problems" with the quarterly liquidation of OVP, the agency representative answered, "Yes, Mr. Chair."