Ex-DepEd Chief of Staff Denies Role in Confidential Funds

Atty. Michael Poa, former chief of staff of the Department of Education (DepEd), on Wednesday maintained that he had nothing to do with the confidential funds of the agency, despite serving as the agency’s chief of staff and undersecretary while Vice President Sara Duterte was Education secretary. On the 21st day of Duterte’s impeachment trial, Poa said documents showed that responsibility for handling the confidential funds rested with a special disbursing officer and a security officer. “I understand the people who are asking, who are thinking, ‘Imposible naman na hindi niya alam, COS siya.’ But anyone who has worked with the Vice President would know that when she runs an office, it’s highly compartmentalized. Ibig sabihin, kung anong binigay sa iyo na function, ’yun lang ang tututukan mo,” he said. (I understand the people who are asking and thinking, ‘It’s impossible that he didn’t know about the confidential funds because he was the chief of staff.’ But anyone who has worked with the Vice President would know that when she runs an office, it’s highly compartmentalized. That means you focus only on the function assigned to you.) “Kung tatandaan natin, ’yung confidential funds, it started way before I became chief of staff,” he added. (If we recall, the confidential funds started way before I became chief of staff.) Poa served in several capacities at DepEd under Duterte, including as spokesperson, undersecretary, and chief of staff. During her interpellation, Senator-Judge Imee Marcos asked Poa: “So maliwanag na maliwanag para sa iyo na ’yung confidential funds, hindi mo trabaho ’yun kahit COS ka ng Secretary?” (So, it is very clear to you that handling the confidential funds was not part of your job, even though you were the Secretary’s chief of staff?) Poa, who had been declared a hostile witness by the Senate impeachment court, answered in the affirmative. Security officer Poa also disclosed during the trial that he was unaware that DepEd had a security officer to whom former special disbursing officer Edward Fajarda turned over confidential funds in 2023. Poa said he learned about the functions of Col. Dennis Nolasco only during a House panel hearing in October 2024. “Si Col. Nolasco actually, hindi ko siya nakita sa DepEd nung mga panahon na nandoon ako. Hindi ko siya kilala at all. Si Col. Lachica, to be fair, kilala ko po siya kasi nag-courtesy call siya as the commander of the VPSPG,” he said. (I actually didn’t see Col. Nolasco at DepEd during my stint there. I didn’t know him at all. To be fair, I do know Col. Lachica because he paid a courtesy call in his capacity as commander of the VPSPG.) During the 2024 House inquiry, Fajarda told lawmakers that he released P4 million to P6 million a week in confidential funds to a “security officer” designated by a colonel from the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG). Xylene del Campo of the Commission on Audit (COA) previously recalled that during the 2024 hearing, Fajarda said Duterte instructed him to turn over the confidential funds to Nolasco for disbursement. Del Campo said the move violated Joint Circular 2015-01, which governs the use of confidential and intelligence funds. — VBL, GMA News