WHAT has Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s offices accomplished with P612.5 million in confidential funds?
Deputy Speaker Janette Garin raised this question as she noted that while the identities of informants may be protected, the output from spending public money cannot remain secret.
It could be recalled that the defense declined to categorically answer the question of a senator-judge if the controversial names of confidential fund recipients such as “Mary Grace Piattos” or “Andy Lim” were aliases or real people.
“Kung confidential man ‘yung mga informants at nagbibigay ng impormasyon, kailangan hindi confidential ‘yung output,” Garin said during an online press briefing Monday.
Her remarks came as Duterte’s impeachment trial scrutinizes the alleged misuse of confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd), both of which she headed when the money was released and spent.
The amount consists of P500 million released to the OVP from December 2022 to September 2023 and P112.5 million released to the DepEd in 2023 while Duterte was Education Secretary.
Garin said confidentiality may protect informants and intelligence sources, but it does not remove the government’s obligation to show what hundreds of millions of pesos in taxpayers’ money spent in the form of confidential funds had accomplished.
“Hindi pwede na wala kang makitang output. Kasi kaakibat ng bawat piso, bawat milyon, and multi-million na ina-allocate nina Juan at Maria de la Cruz sa confidential fund ay ang accountability,” she said.
Garin cited the DepEd as an example, saying confidential funds could be used to gather information against illegal drugs, gambling, violence, scams and other threats affecting schools.
But while the identities of those who supplied the information may remain confidential, Garin said the government should be able to point to concrete results of actions done.
If intelligence was used to identify drug suppliers or manufacturers, scammers or illegal gambling operations targeting schools, she said there should be corresponding outcomes such as arrests, disrupted operations or identified hideouts.
“In this case, sa ngayon, wala pa tayong nakikitang output,” Garin said.
The question of whether the confidential fund spending produced measurable results figured prominently in the testimony of Commission on Audit (COA) State Auditor Roderick Wamil before the Senate impeachment court last week.
Wamil testified that no evidence of success accompanied the liquidation documents to establish the results of the reported confidential operations.
The impeachment court also heard testimony on thousands of acknowledgment receipts used to liquidate the funds, including receipts bearing names that prosecutors suspect belong to fictitious recipients.
Apart from Piattos and Lim, several other controversial names have surfaced among alleged recipients of confidential funds, such as Milky Secuya, Kokoy Villamin, and Alejandro Pikit, among others.
Piattos, whose name had previously drawn scrutiny over questions about her identity, was listed in one acknowledgment receipt as having received P70,000 worth of medicines as a supposed reward for intelligence information.
Wamil testified that giving medicines as rewards for intelligence information was not normal based on his nearly 10 years with the COA Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office, and that Duterte’s OVP was the first agency where he encountered such a practice.
Garin said the evidence and testimony presented so far have provided some answers, but key questions surrounding the confidential funds remain unresolved.
“Meron pang mga katanungan na kailangang sagutin. At siguro kapag makuha na ‘yung mga sagot sa katanungang ito, medyo mabubuksan pa nang mas maliwanag at magkakaroon ng desisyon ang ating senator-judges,” she said.
She expressed hope that succeeding testimony would establish what the confidential fund spending actually accomplished.
“Sana makita ito, matuldukan ito para naman magkaroon ng tamang accountability,” Garin said.
metrosundaily
