[ANALYSIS] Duterte impeachment trial Day 16: Why did Sara trust Lachica so much?
Who is Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, and why did Vice President Sara Duterte allow him to receive and dispense P125 million in OVP’s confidential funds in December 2022?
It got circuitous in the first few hours of Day 16, but after three hours of examining a hostile witness, the former OVP special disbursement officer Gina Acosta, the prosecution finally made itself clear: It was zeroing in on Lachica, the man Duterte entrusted with the questioned funds.
With Lachica now uncovered, the prosecution managed to establish that there was supposedly a break in the “chain of accountability,” as defined by a previous witness, Commission on Audit state auditor Xylene del Campo, in the disbursement of the P125 million, a quarter of the questioned P500 million in confidential funds released to the OVP between 2022 to 2023, when Lachica took an active role in receiving and dispensing the funds.
Why Lachica? Why did Duterte trust him that much? Was it proper for Duterte to deputize him, not Acosta, to dispense the funds?
According to del Campo, quoting the joint circular of 2015, only Acosta was the authorized disbursing officer. Nobody else.
Thus, for the OVP to transfer that responsibility, that power, or that burden from Acosta to Lachica was questionable, on top of the many issues involving the insufficient compliance of documentary evidence covering confidential funds as provided for by the 2015 joint circular crafted and issued by COA, the Budget, National Defense, local government units, among other government agencies.
COA found it too objectionable that it issued the OVP a Notice of Disallowance involving the P125 million shortly after Acosta admitted in a House committee hearing in November 2024 that she released the P125 million to Lachica, at Duterte’s order.
Both prosecution lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan and Acosta referred to Lachica as the “security officer” throughout the hearing. But Lachica is not a lowly security officer.
Who is Lachica?
He is not a regular employee of the OVP, but he was appointed by the top Armed Forces of the Philippines brass to head Duterte’s security group. He was on top of a composite military and police command to keep the vice president safe.
Until he was relieved of his post as a result of the confidential fund controversy in October 2025, Lachica’s functions included receiving, evaluating, and acting on intelligence information that might be considered threats to Duterte's life and even to her immediate family.
Lachica has been in the military for more than 33 years after graduating from the Philippine Military Academy in March 1993. He was once the director for research and special studies of the Philippine Army.
He was also a field station commander of an intelligence unit operating in the provinces of Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental in Mindanao, and the assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence of the 10th Infantry Division in 2010.
He was the Army company commander from 1996 to 1999 in Mindanao, possibly where he and Duterte got to know each other well.
Still, for all his military credentials, if COA auditors were to be believed, and they dutifully complied with the joint circular, Lachica should not have had any role in handling the confidential funds.
It took some time for the prosecution to zero in on Lachica, one of the possible weakest links to pin down Duterte, if only on the grounds provided by the circular.
Supposed language barrier, presentation of AI-generated images
The first few hours of the hearing were marred by some court nuances, ranging from Acosta’s difficulty to express herself in Tagalog until senator-judge Erwin Tulfo called the court's attention to the fact that she managed to speak in the vernacular during the House hearing. Acosta and Tulfo both hailed from Davao, and thus both spoke Cebuano.
There were other issues: The oft-repeated questions asked but long-answered about the withdrawal of the P125 million, how and where the advice came from, where the money was placed and transported, the use of AI to illustrate the huge funds, and many others.
Before Acosta, there was another prosecution witness, Marivic Pareja from the House of Representatives' Legislative Information Resources Management Department as part of their case concerning fund liquidations. But after the prosecution and the defense stipulated documents she received from House hearings, among others, Pareja was excused. It was quite a surprise.
Acosta told the court that she was indeed the “special disbursing officer,” a fact that has long been established in the past many weeks of the impeachment trial. But she helped draft the OVP’s “good governance” projects, ranging from tree planting to free bus rides, among others. However, she trusted Lachica to handle the security and intelligence parts.
“Because he is the expert on the confidential operations,” she said.
Closing in on missing links
For that, Acosta said she relied on Lachica to help her justify disbursement of the funds “with his inputs” each time the OVP would comply with the liquidation report.
At the insistence of Ligutan, Acosta said she trusted Lachica to handle the funds because of her boss, “the head of the agency,” Vice President Sara Duterte, under whose name the confidential funds were released.
So again, why did Duterte trust him that much? Was it proper for Duterte to deputize Lachica to dispense the funds?
Given that the confidential funds were released under her name, doesn’t Duterte have the power, the responsibility, and the burden of using the funds, and allowing her trusted people to help her carry out her projects?
No way, if you ask the COA auditors.
Still, the COA auditors have not shown tangible proof that Duterte had personally benefited from the funds. It presumed she did, based on the circular, with the issuance of the disallowance on the P125 million.
All this time, they were trying to pin her down on the way the funds were used, driven by the questionable compliance with COA rules.
With Lachica, the prosecution believes it is getting closer, hoping that the Army colonel could provide the missing links, the faces and identities behind the Mary Grace Piattos, Bacons, and Mangos of the intelligence community.
Meanwhile, the rest of the prosecution team was litigating the impeachment complaints outside the court.
A Johnny-come-lately in the Senate hearing, Rep. Benny Abante, likened Duterte’s confidential funds to the floods that hit the country on Day 16. “Binaha ng confidential funds. At katulad po ng baha ngayon, hindi alam kung saan nanggaling, hindi alam kung saan napunta."
"Ang gustong malaman ng taumbayan natin eto: Kanino po napunta ang P125 million na 'yan, kung si Col. Lachica ay hindi recipient na inamin din naman ni Gina Acosta?"
It was cute, but then again, things were not as simple as that.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of PhilSTAR L!fe, its parent company and affiliates, or its staff.