Officials of the Department of Education(DepEd) are still accountable over how Vice President Sara Duterte utilized the P112-million confidential fund of the agency in 2023, Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros said on Tuesday, September 3.

Hontiveros pointed this out after DepEd Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn Sevilla testified on Monday that the agency is unaware of how the fund was utilized even though Duterte has liquidated the confidential fund expenses in 2023.

According to Sevilla, they do not know how the funds were then utilized because they were not part of the utilization and liquidation process. She said only a a copy of the letter saying that the funds were liquidated was given to them.

“This only confirms what many of us have feared—that the allocation of such a significant budget to an agency mandated for education, not conducting surveillance, was misguided from the start,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“DepEd provided institutional backing and policy justification for the Confidential Fund requested by then Secretary, VP Sara Duterte. Kung ang kagawaran mismo, hindi maipaliwanag kung paano ginamit ang confidential fund, at ang dating kalihim ay umiiwas sa pagsagot tungkol dito, mas lalong nadaragdagan ang duda (If the department itself, cannot explain how the confidential fund was used, and the former secretary avoids answering about it, the doubt increases even more),” she stressed.

Hontiveros said DepEd officials cannot just wash its hands of the responsibility on the use of confidential funds. 

“Hindi pwedeng maghugas kamay ang ilang opisyal ng ahensya sa usapin ng paggamit ng confidential fund. Kung hindi ito nagamit ng tama at wasto, mananagot din ang sinumang may partisipasyon sa paggamit nito (Some of the agency officials cannot just wash their hands when it comes to using confidential funds. If it is not used correctly and properly, anyone who participates in its use is also responsible),” she pointed out.

Hontiveros, then, appealed to the Senate Select Committee on Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF), Programs, and Activities to look into this matter and for the Commission on Audit (COA) to update lawmakers on the use of CIF. 

“Kahit na hindi nag request ang DepEd sa pamumuno ni Secretary Sonny Angara ng CIF, sa panukalang pondo para sa 2025, bilyon pa rin ang halaga ng requested budget for CIFs ng iba't ibang ahensya (Even though the DepEd, under the leadership of Secretary Sonny Angara, did not request for CIFs in the proposed fund for 2025, the amount of the requested budget for CIFs of various agencies is still billions),” she lamented.

“Hihintayin ko rin ang ilalabas na report ng COA hinggil dito.  Karapatan ng mga Pilipino na malaman kung saan ginagastos ang perang pinaghirapan natin, hanggang sa huling sentimo (I will also wait for the release of the COA report regarding this.  Filipinos have the right to know where our hard-earned money is being spent, down to the last cent),” she stressed.

Duterte served as DepEd secretary from July 2022 to June 2024; she resigned from the post on June 19.

President Marcos then appointed Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara as the new DepEd chief.