OVP Confidential Funds Authenticity Debated in Senate Impeachment Trial

The defense on Monday refused to stipulate to the authenticity of 845 acknowledgment receipts for confidential funds released by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in December 2022 during the impeachment trial. Lorna Kapunan, counsel for the prosecution panel, sought the stipulation in relation to the presentation of former Commission on Audit state auditor Roderick Wamil as the prosecution’s witness. Kapunan told the Senate impeachment court on Day 11 of the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte that the acknowledgment receipts alone for the fourth quarter of the OVP would amount to 845 documents. However, both sides stipulated to the following facts: that the OVP was allotted P125 million in confidential funds in December 2022; the Department of Education (DepEd) was allotted P37.5 million quarterly in 2023; and that both offices withdrew their quarterly confidential funds in full from the first to the third quarters of 2023. The defense qualified that the P125 million in confidential funds for the OVP was approved by the Office of the President upon the recommendation of the Department of Budget and Management, and that the allotment for DepEd was under the General Appropriations Act. The stipulation also stated that all OVP and DepEd documents, including the acknowledgment receipts, were signed by authorized signatories. Kapunan noted that the stipulations spared the court 10 of 15 boxes of evidence. Duterte’s confidential funds became controversial after allegations came out that her office had used fictitious names as recipients to justify its spending. One of the supposed recipients was Mary Grace Piattos, who the Philippine Statistics Authority said does not exist. In April this year, the Commission on Audit (COA) issued a final notice of disallowance on P73,287 in intelligence expenses incurred between December 21 and 31, 2022 by the OVP, citing insufficient documentary evidence to justify the transactions. The COA-Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office issued on March 31 a separate notice of disallowance on the P375 million OVP confidential expenses for the first three quarters of 2023. Duterte and her disbursing officers have been ordered to return the money to the government.