[ANALYSIS] Duterte impeachment trial Day 14: Kapunan finds the syringe to prick Sara's image

Another official of the Commission on Audit has come forward and raised more questions about the way Vice President Sara Duterte liquidated part of some P500 million in OVP confidential funds.

Surprisingly, the witness, COA-ICFAO auditor Xylene Mae Del Campo, declared that the Department of Education has been given a “credit notice” for part of its questioned credit of P112.5 million in its confidential funds.

COA issues a credit notice if it finds questioned funds “officially deemed accounted for and regular.” DepEd got such notice as early as 2024, according to defense counsel Atty. Michael Poa.

Not willing to give up, prosecution panel Atty. Lorna Kapunan elicited a comment from Del Campo that such credit notice could still be revoked within three years, if the documentary evidence that DepEd had submitted would be found fraudulent.

She raised the question twice and got the same answer twice, probably wanting to reopen it some other time.

Setting aside the credit notice, Day 14 of the trial raised more questions as to how Duterte released confidential funds to certain confidential people involved in certain confidential projects.

On Kapunan's direct examination, Del Campo—quoting documentary evidence submitted to COA—said that the OVP issued different amounts ranging from P9,000 to P150,000 to hundreds of individuals in different places all in one day, prompting the feisty lawyer to question the capability of OVP special disbursement officer Gina Acosta to be anywhere or everywhere at any given time. “Hindi naman siya si Superman.”

Kapunan poked fun at some of the names of the recipients of the confidential funds, with quirky surnames such as Bacon, Mango, Kamote or Keso, Pampano, or surnames of senators such as Escudero, Lacson, Lapid, or of another fellow linked to another public funds scandal Napoles, suggesting that these could not have been their real names. In the last hearing, however, the first COA witness Roderick Wamil said the COA and the joint circular neither prohibit nor allow the use of possible fictitious surnames.

The aliases and Acosta's alleged omnipresence would probably have no legal bearing for now, but in the bar of public opinion, Kapunan has introduced the syringe to prick the public mind as to how Duterte could supposedly be so sloppy in handling millions in public funds.

She was actually trying to say all that was just a pretext to a long-time allegation that the VP had personally benefited from the funds, except that she could not say it in the trial because it was still a long way for the prosecution to prove it.

Last week, Wamil said once an agency is issued a Notice of Disallowance, the joint circular presumes that the head of the agency had benefited from the use of the funds. Well, again, that was still a presumption.

Like Wamil, Del Campo said she issued a notice of memorandum in several instances because the OVP failed to sufficiently comply with a joint circular requiring it to provide a financial plan for the use of confidential funds, receipts for the purchase of supplies, and justification for releasing funds to individuals. The OVP was also required to explain how the payment of rewards resulted in the failure or success of a confidential operation, and eventually submit a success or accomplishment report.

Del Campo revealed that a massive chunk of the disallowed funds, about P69.7 million, was justified by the OVP for rewards, goods, and medicines without sufficient proof of successful surveillance or information-gathering operations. 

All these, she said, were irregular.

Another P3.5 million went toward office furniture and equipment like tables, chairs, and computers, and safehouses.

Some audit logs showed that some OVP liquidation expenses were supposedly incurred days before the office even officially received the P125 million confidential fund allocation on Dec. 21, 2022.

All this documentary perusal dulled the trial, save for Kapunan’s one-line antics that began when she opened her spiel, claiming the defense snubbed her last week, almost triggering a tense verbal clash between her and defense lawyer Atty. Kristine Ferrer over scheduling and the handling of thousands of documentary exhibits.

Del Campo said the COA issued a Notice of Disallowance covering the OVP's P375 million in confidential funds for the first three quarters of 2023 after Acosta, the OVP’s special disbursement officer, appeared at a House hearing and admitted that, on Duterte's instruction in 2022, she released the funds to Col. Raymundo Dante Lachica, head of the Vice President Security Group.

It was a violation of the provision in the 2015 joint circular allowing no one but the designated SDO to disburse the funds. Such violation allowed her to leap from AOM to disallowance without passing through a notice of suspension. 

Because of the controversy, the AFP relieved Lachica of the post last October. 

But while the recommendations of both Wamil and Del Campo were approved by their immediate superior, their notices to the OVP were still not final as these were all pending at the office of the chair of the Commission on Audit.

If it gets a final unfavorable COA ruling, the OVP can still elevate the case to the Supreme Court. "Nothing is final," said Poa. “Hangga't may remedy pa.” 

But the trial gives way to some limitations in COA’s appreciation of confidential and intelligence work.

By her own admission, Del Campo said the COA is undermanned and couldn't possibly do field work or physical audit as to how confidential operations are handled and funds are processed, circumscribing the agency to work in a vacuum. 

While it's true that there is only one authorized SDO per agency on paper, nothing stops the head of the agency in practice from deputizing other trusted officials to help the SDO carry out a delicate operation.

Colonel Lachica’s involvement was supposed to provide legitimacy in the OVP confidential operations, but Del Campo considered it irregular in violation of the circular.

Soon, the defense panel would call on retired military generals to reinforce this view.

The COA evaluates an agency's paper compliance, unmindful of the field and physical risk people involved in confidential and surveillance operations take to carry out their mission.

The Vice President has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing or misuse of confidential funds, asserting that all allocations under her office were spent legally and appropriately.

Still, as far as Day 14 was concerned, the prosecution found a syringe. The public will have to wait another day to see if the syringe really pricks the defense.

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