Duterte’s anomalous CF use system has roots in Davao City – solons

MANILA, Philippines — The system for confidential fund (CF) expenditures employed by Vice President Sara Duterte’s offices mimicked that of Davao City — with the same personnel involved in the city’s secret fund use being present and brought over to the national scene.

In a press briefing on Friday, Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong and prosecution impeachment advisor Robert Ace Barbers made a presentation detailing the similarities in how the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) disbursed the CFs, when compared to Davao City when Duterte was its mayor.

Asked if Duterte purposely appointed officials from her time as Davao mayor to facilitate this system of disbursing CFs, Barbers said that the vice president has the right to pick trusted individuals. However, he also admitted that it is hard to ignore that the same set of people have produced the same results even if they were assigned to different offices.

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READ: Prosecution panel says OVP treated confidential funds like petty cash 

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“Well, for me, we can clearly see that the players or the personalities behind what we call a confi-scam are the same set of individuals from Davao. We cannot remove from our head of agency in that particular department that she picks trusted officials like a special disbursing officer, because she will handle funds,” Barbers said.

“But so far, we can see that the same players went to different agencies but yielded the same result: the funds were given to a non-accountable officer, who is not a bonded officer, and then after it we don’t know, there is no justification as to how the funds were used,” he added.

Alonto Adiong said the similarity in how the CFs were used in Davao, and how it was spent in OVP and DepEd, are too striking to ignore.

“Well, the pattern in the similarity is too striking, no?  The similarity is too obvious to ignore […] So if you tie the testimony and the evidence which we saw and heard, with her previous position when she was then the Davao mayor, we see the similarity on how important it is for her to have these confidential funds,” the lawmaker noted.

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“It appears that the operation, on how to use confidential funds, was also brought in to the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education. So again, the similarity and the pattern is so striking, and for obvious reasons, we cannot ignore that,” he added.

In their presentation, Barbers and Alonto Adiong presented a five-step process that was seen in how Davao City, OVP, and DepEd used its CF:

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• request, which is asking the national government for CFs
• cash out, or withdrawal of the CF
• turn over, referring to the transfer of the CF from the special disbursing officer (SDO) to a security officer not authorized to handle CFs
• disbursement, during which the supposed paper trail of the CFs are lost
• liquidation, or the use of acknowledgement receipts and certifications to prove the usage of the CFs

Both prosecution spokespersons said that Vice President, when she was serving as a Davao City official, had two key trusted officials with her:

• Lemuel Ortonio, who was Duterte’s chief-of-staff from 2008 to 2013 when she was a vice mayor and then mayor.  Ortonio was also head of the Davao City Investment Promotion Center from 2016 to 2018 and of Davao City’s Human Resource Management Office from 2018 to 2022
• Zuleika Lopez, acting Davao City administrator from 2010 to 2013, and Davao City administrator from 2016 to 2022

Ortonio eventually became assistant secretary of OVP, acting as the assistant chief-of-staff, while Lopez holds an undersecretary portfolio as Duterte’s chief-of-staff.

Barbers and Alonto Adiong said both were involved in requesting confidential funds. Cashing out these funds, meanwhile, involved Gina Acosta, former supervising administrative staff for the City Budget Office.

Acosta eventually became SDO for OVP.  In Davao City, Acosta handed over the CF to Maj. Gen. Benito de Leon of the Davao City Public Safety and Security Command Center, as he was tasked to be the security officer.

The prosecution spokespersons said all three were involved in OVP’s CF use: Ortonio and Lopez were supposedly involved in making the requests for secret funds, while Acosta was responsible for cashing out the allocations.

Similarly, Acosta admitted before the House of Representatives committee on good government and public accountability and the Senate Impeachment Court that she gave OVP’s CF — amounting to P125 million for four quarters, from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023 — to former Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group chief Col. Raymund Dante Lachica.

READ: Acosta admits handing CF to Lachica despite knowing he was not bonded 

“That’s why we will return to the question: why is (it) so important for her that she needs to enjoy these confidential funds, that she requested it?” Alonto Adiong said.  “And this did not come from us, it is from documents, from the testimonies of witnesses from the impeachment court.”

Barbers, on the other hand, said that the absence of a clear explanation on how the funds were spent leads to the conclusion that there is a scam.

“That is the reason why we say it is a big scam, because our laws and the Joint Circular states that if they cannot properly explain through the submission of documents or records, or prove that the use of the funds were legitimate, then there is a presumption that these funds were used for personal benefit or were pocketed,” he added.

The prosecution has wrapped up its presentation of evidence for Article I of the Articles of Impeachment, which contains allegations that there was misuse of the CF allocated to Duterte’s offices. Last Tuesday, counsel for the prosecution Lorna Kapunan said they will no longer be presenting 15 other witnesses for Article I, as they would just ask Duterte later on to answer allegations raised against her.

READ: Kapunan: Prosecution panel to call VP Sara Duterte to witness stand 

A total of twelve witnesses have been presented by the prosecution panel for Article I, which includes Acosta, Ortonio, former DepEd Undersecretary Michael Poa, and other individuals with knowledge of the issues involving OVP and DepEd’s CF use.

READ: Asst. chief of staff: Duterte knows, authorized all activities on confi funds 

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Despite their different roles, all three admitted that it was Duterte, along with Lachica for OVP and Nolasco for DepEd, who knew how the secret funds were spent. /das