Solon to quiz OVP on P125-M confidential fund for 2022; Sara Duterte ready to explain

Vice President Sara Duterte should explain the source of the Office of the Vice President’s P125 million worth of confidential funds for 2022 given that such an item is not provided under the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA), House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of ACT Teachers party-list said on Friday.

In response, Duterte said the department if prepared to be scrutinized by the Commission on Audit (COA) on the spending.

“We will ask about this. The Vice President needs to 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,” Castro said.

"Without such authorization, the strict rule prohibiting public disclosure of the use of confidential funds does not apply in this case. Therefore, we ask that the OVP provide a detailed public accounting of how the P125 million was spent,” Castro added.

The OVP’s P125 million confidential fund expenditure for fiscal year 2022 was part of the COA's annual audit report on the said office.

The OVP, Castro said, cannot realign its budget to a non-existent line item or comingle it with other line items because it will violate the following laws:

• Article 6 Section 29 (1) of the Constitution which states that “No money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law”
• Article 220 of the Revised Penal Code on technical malversation and illegal use of public funds
• Section 80 Chapter 7, Book 6 Executive Order 292 of the Administrative  Code and illegal expenditures under Section 43 Chapter 5 on the General Provision of the General Appropriations Act
• Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act
• Grave or simple misconduct or conduct prejudicial to service
• Supreme Court ruling on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) which provides that savings cannot be realigned

“The 2022 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 confidential funds for her office for fiscal year 2022. Vice President Duterte began her term on June 30, 2022,” Castro said.

Castro also quizzed the COA about the said appropriation, with COA chairman Gamaliel Cordoba responding that the state auditors will look into it.

"We hope that the COA can make an expeditious investigation on this and have their report before the plenary," Castro added

Duterte said the OVP stands ready to be probed by COA on its confidential funds.

"We welcome the probe she recommended for the COA to do on the 2022 OVP confidential fund," she said.

"All she (Castro) did was wildly and masterfully arrange some allegations against me and the OVP, which will all be answered once the probe is done and during the budget hearing," Duterte added. —LDF/KG, GMA Integrated News