FORMER Department of Education (DepEd) Undersecretary Michael Wesley Poa on Wednesday confirmed that no DepEd confidential funds were given to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for the Youth Leadership Summits (YLS) cited in military certifications submitted to the Commission on Audit (COA).
Poa made the admission as a hostile witness in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Z. Duterte, who served as education secretary when DepEd spent P112.5 million in confidential funds in 2023.
Asked by private prosecutor Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr. to confirm that no DepEd confidential funds were given to the AFP for the YLS, Poa replied: “Yes, sir. I confirm that.”
The testimony reinforced earlier statements from Army officers Col. Manaros Boransing II and Col. Magtangol Panopio that the YLS was a regular military activity and that their units did not receive DepEd confidential funds for the activities covered by their certifications.
Poa also recalled the AFP officers saying they did not know when they issued the certifications that the documents would later be used in connection with DepEd’s confidential fund liquidation.
“I remember them saying that, sir,” Poa testified.
He further recalled that one or two of the military officers explained that such certifications were ordinarily issued to agencies participating in the YLS.
The prosecution then focused on why the AFP certifications were used to support DepEd’s response to an Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) concerning rewards supposedly paid to confidential informers.
Poa testified that his interpretation at the time was that information obtained by DepEd through the payment of rewards supposedly helped the military identify areas for its activities.
But he repeatedly acknowledged that he had no personal knowledge that this was actually what happened.
“That is just my interpretation of the certification,” Poa said.
“Whether or not that is indeed the case, I really do not have personal knowledge of it,” he added.
Poa also confirmed that when previously asked where the supposed link between the confidential fund information and the AFP activities came from, he had described it as his “theory.”
“Yes, sir,” Poa testified.
In his April 17, 2024 response to COA, Poa said financial rewards were given to informers for leads or information that supposedly allowed DepEd to formulate targeted programs and interventions against recruitment, violent extremism and other criminal activities.
The response cited four AFP certifications as evidence of the “success of various programs, projects, and activities directly resulting from the information provided by informers.”
But under questioning, Poa acknowledged that he did not personally know what specific information had been provided by the informers or whether that information actually led to the AFP activities cited in the certifications.
He also confirmed that he had no personal knowledge of how DepEd’s confidential funds were operationally used and became involved only after receiving the COA audit observation and preparing the agency’s response.
“Any involvement that you had with respect to confidential funds, it started when you received the AOM?” Tolosa asked.
“When I received the AOM, yes, sir,” Poa replied.
Poa said he consulted DepEd special disbursing officer Edward Fajarda, who referred him to then-Undersecretary Nolasco Mempin for documents showing the supposed success of activities linked to the confidential fund expenditures.
Poa likewise confirmed that Mempin himself had no personal knowledge of how the confidential funds were used.
Mempin eventually provided the AFP certifications that Poa attached to DepEd’s response to COA.
The prosecution has been questioning whether those certifications actually established the required link between rewards paid to informers, the information supposedly obtained and the successful activities cited in DepEd’s liquidation of confidential funds.
Poa’s testimony thus drew a clear distinction between the existence of the YLS and the actual use of DepEd confidential funds: the military activities took place, but no DepEd confidential funds were given to the AFP for them.
That leaves at issue what specific operations or activities were actually financed by the P112.5 million in DepEd confidential funds and whether the documents submitted to COA sufficiently established where the money went.
The P112.5 million forms part of the first Article of Impeachment accusing Duterte of alleged misuse, misappropriation and irregular liquidation of confidential funds. (
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