MANILA, Philippines — It’s premature to consider impeaching Vice President Sara Duterte for using P125 million from the budget of her predecessor as confidential fund (CF), a Makabayan bloc lawmaker said yesterday, backpedalling from an earlier pronouncement that militant legislators were considering having her impeached for possible fund misuse.
“We must focus on the issue at hand. We must focus on facts first and ask for accountability. Talks of impeachment is premature,” ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro said at a briefing. She announced on Friday that the Makabayan bloc was looking at seeking Duterte’s impeachment.
But the lawmaker insisted that in the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the Office of the Vice President (OVP) did not have confidential expenses.
She added the GAA was “prepared and proposed” by then president Rodrigo Duterte and enacted by Congress in 2021.
“The vice president at the time, Leni Robredo, did not ask for and consequently was not given any CF for her office for fiscal year 2022. VP Duterte began her term on June 30, 2022,” she said.
Citing the 2022 annual audit report of the Commission on Audit for the OVP, particularly on page 38 of the Notes to Financial Statement, Castro underscored “there was an additional allotment for Confidential Expense during the second semester of CY 2022 amounting to P125 million.”
It is also reflected in the “Supporting Information to the Statement of Financial Performance” found on page 20 of the same document.
Castro added, however, that the P125-million confidential fund of OVP in 2022 did not go through the budget deliberations conducted by Congress in 2022
“Therefore, the transfer and actual spending of P125 million for the confidential fund of the OVP is illegal because it was not entitled to CF in 2022,” she maintained.
The lawmaker surmised that the OVP used the budget as CF “believing they were protected by the secrecy rule.”
However, she said this may not be considered as CF based on the GAA 2022 and the Joint Ciruclar 2015-01 of the COA, Department of Budget and Management, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Government Commission for GOCCs and the Department of National Defense.
Castro added Duterte should explain “how she could incur obligations amounting to P125 million in confidential expenses in the last six months of 2022 despite the fact that her office has no congressional authorization to do so for that year.”
“We ask that the OVP provide a detailed public accounting of how the P125 million was spent. We hope that VP Sara Duterte will use the OVP budget hearing to personally clarify her position on this sensitive issue,” she maintained.