Senate Impeachment Court Presiding Officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero said on Wednesday, August 26 that the body can compel the Office of the Vice President to produce evidence that the confidential funds given to the agency were utilized properly and given as rewards to informants. 

Escudero pointed this out when Senator-judge Panfilo “Ping” Lacson broached the idea after OVP Assistant Secretary and Assistant Chief of Staff Lemuel Ortonio, the second hostile witness in the impeachment trial of the Vice President, insisted that there is nothing wrong with using aliases in the disbursement of confidential funds as rewards to informants to protect their identity.

During his intervention on Ortonio, Lacson expressed his frustration over the lack of proof that the P625-million worth of confidential funds were indeed physically distributed to real informants, who needed it to buy medicines and supplies. 

“Did they really receive a reward? Maybe these can be presented relative to the expended outcome just so we can make a decision as to where the funds really went?” Lacson pointed out.

“I’m addressing this to the presiding officer, is it possible for the Court to (issue a) subpoena duces tecum (on these documents) just to settle this issue once and for all? So we can have informed decisions in the proper time instead of us just guessing,” he asked.

Escudero, then, responded that as a general rule, the Impeachment Court should sit as a passive body and leave it up to the prosecution to request to subpoena documents they deemed necessary to prove their case. 

“However, the Court is not without any power after both counsels have presented their respective evidences in chief, to call a witness, recall a witness, call a witness that was not called or named by either party and subpoena documents in connection with the subpoena ad testificandum decus tecum may also be issued,” Escudero stressed.

Escudero made the remark, citing as basis Cebu City vs Gako,—the case involving a retired Cebu City judge whom the Supreme Court ordered to pay a fine of P100,000 after it found him guilty of simple misconduct.

“So, in the appropriate time, Sen. Lacson, the court can avail of that power,” the presiding officer assured.

Prior to this, Lacson described as “stupid” and an “insult to common sense” the copy-pasted and vague entries used by the OVP to justify the P625-million worth of confidential funds where P125-million was spent in just 11 days, in 2022 and P500-million in 2023.

In comparing the Physical and Financial Plans (PFPs) submitted by the OVP in 2022 and 2023, Lacson showed that these contained exactly the same narrative targets requesting a total of P625-million from the fourth quarter of 2022 until the fourth quarter of 2023.

“Isn’t this an insult to common sense? You didn’t even change it a bit? First of all, it’s a regular program, you could have changed the nomenclature of the PFP, under the physical target,” Lacson pointed out.

“Copy-paste eh,” he further noted.

When he asked Ortonio to describe the OVP’s submissions in one word, the OVP aide hesitated, prompting Lacson to say: “I’ll say it in your behalf. I think it’s stupid.”

Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo, for his part, pressed Ortonio as to why the OVP did not allow the Department of Health (DOH) to implement some of their programs on the provision of medicines to informants instead of using confidential funds for them to buy medicines, but the latter could not answer.

“The wisdom behind how the confidential funds were implemented, sir. I cannot answer, sir. Because again, sir, I am not the main implementer for the said activities,” Ortonio said.

To which Tulfo retorted: “It defies logic. It’s unbelievable. For me, it really defies logic.  You’re wasting your intelligence here,” Tulfo pointed out.

 “I personally take offense to that comment sir,” Ortonio replied. “I actually just did my duty sir. At that time, sir, I believe that that was what I needed to do as an employee sir. And I did my work based on what was asked of me, sir. Including the limitations that I can do to the duty that I will be doing,” he said further.

To which Tulfo responded: “Now, you’re talking about taking offense. What about the people? They’re being offended with the way public funds were wasted. We’re talking about public funds here. If you’re taking offense, how much more are the Filipino people?” 

Ortonio also admitted that neither he nor the top OVP leadership initiated an internal inquiry or summoned Lachica to verify whether the public funds actually reached legitimate recipients or merely pocketed.

“I personally did not (order an internal investigation). I did not call for one),” he said when asked by Sen. Paolo “Bam” Aquino IV.

He also said he had no idea if Duterte herself called for an internal inquiry.

“On that matter, I don’t know sir. If there is an instruction coming from the head of the agency sir. But personally to me sir, (there was) none,” he said.

The OVP official also admitted that he never confronted Lachica about the anomalous receipts or the identities of the recipients.

“Sir, I was only able to request to talk to Col. Lachica in relation only to the response to the AOM (audit observation memorandum). At that time, when I was drafting the AOM, sir, no, sir. Because I had no knowledge of the AR (acknowledgement receipt),” he said.

Ortonio said he relied on the presumption of regularity even though questions initially crossed his mind when corruption allegations were being raised against Duterte on how she is spending confidential funds.

But Aquino pointed out that it is still unclear as to how the P500-million in confidential funds were spent, noting that there is no way to verify if the cash was indeed used to purchase medicines or tables and chairs.

When Aquino asked if Duterte was somehow alarmed when names like “Piattos,” “Pusa,” and “Pagong” have cropped up during congressional hearings, Ortonio said his concerns fased simply because state auditors did not explicitly list them in their initial AOM.

“As the hearings went on, sir, I reviewed the AOMs. Those were not raised on the AOMs, so my concerns were allayed, my personal concerns, with those acknowledgement receipts,” Ortonio replied.