WHY were confidential funds used for Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s supposed security operations when she already had more than 400 personnel dedicated to her protection?
House prosecution spokespersons posed the question Thursday following the testimony of Commission on Audit-Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office supervising auditor Xylene Mae del Campo on activities cited to support confidential fund spending by the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
House prosecution legal spokesperson and counsel Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr. said Duterte’s security was already the responsibility of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG).
“As pointed out yesterday, meron nang more than 400 security personnel na naka-detail kay Vice President. At ang para sa kanyang seguridad, ito na ay mismong tungkulin ng [VPSPG],” Tolosa said during a House press briefing.
During the defense’s cross-examination of Del Campo on Wednesday, supposed confidential operations involving surveillance of routes to be taken by Duterte were discussed.
Tolosa questioned why OVP confidential funds were needed for security-related activities when Duterte already had a dedicated security group.
House trial spokesperson Kabataan Party-list Rep. Renee Louise Co pointed out that the VPSPG has its own funding separate from the OVP.
“Even at that level, kailangan natin tanungin, kung security matter ba, OVP ba ang dapat na gastahan ng ganyang matter, o meron bang iba?” Co said.
Co said the mandate issue becomes even more pronounced in the Department of Education (DepEd), which received P112.5 million in confidential funds when Duterte was education secretary.
She noted that DepEd is tasked with delivering quality and accessible education to students and questioned how supposed counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations served that mandate.
“Paano ba nakakamit ’yun sa paggasta ng supposedly confidential intelligence funds for ‘counterinsurgency, counterterrorism operations’? Hindi natin nakikita, hindi clear ’yung connection,” Co said.
Co said the nature and purpose of the supposed operations must be considered alongside other anomalies emerging from the confidential fund evidence.
“Napakabigat na dapat ikonsidera sa ebidensya ’yung different sets of anomalies, and included these, ’yung in the first place, is it proper spending? Is it a proper matter for spending of confidential and intelligence funds?” she said.
Co said the questions become more serious the longer they remain unanswered.
“So marami pa ’yan. And pabigat ng pabigat kung hindi po ito nasasagot. At padami ng padami ’yung ebidensya to support ’yung mga anomalies na ito,” she said.
The impeachment trial is scrutinizing P612.5 million in confidential funds under Duterte, including P500 million released to the OVP from December 2022 to September 2023 and P112.5 million released to DepEd in 2023.
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