Castro on Marcos, Duterte impeachment over confidential fund: We don't have numbers

House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro said filing an impeachment complaint against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. or Vice President Sara Duterte over the confidential fund mess is "premature."

At the same time, the ACT party-list representative acknowledged her group, including few allies in Congress, do not have the numbers to make the complaint prosper.

“Impeachment is a political action, and a political action needs numbers. Iyong numbers namin ay kulang talaga. Kaya dinadaan namin sa diskurso, at pag-eexpose na ma-educate ang ating taumbayan na mali tong ginagawang ito," Castro said on The Mangahas Interviews.

"Kaya nga pinapatanggal din namin ang confidential fund na ito kasi it's being abused," she added.

The opposition lawmaker also said filing an impeachment complaint would be a premature move.

“There's potential, but as far as we are concerned,  it would be premature to file an impeachment complaint, whether it be against the Vice President or the President,” she said.

“It is premature to talk about impeachment because discussions about this are evolving. Our focus is on the budget," she added.

Castro has been questioning the legality of the transfer of P125 million from the President's contingent fund to the Office of the Vice President in 2022.

She said such action by the nation’s top elected officials contradicts the 2014 Supreme Court decision on the Aquino administration’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), which ruled that the funding of projects, activities and programs that were not covered by any appropriation in the General Appropriations Act or the national budget law is considered unconstitutional or illegal. 

The DAP, implemented under National Budget Circular No. 541, allowed the Department of Budget and Management to withdraw “unobligated allotments of agencies with low levels of obligations as of June 30, 2012, both for continuing and current allotments.”

"The contingent fund of the President in 2022 was used as if it was a confidential fund when there is no budget item for it. You cannot augment anything because there is no item to augment to begin with,” Castro said.

The lawmaker also said that Duterte admitted that her office requested the confidential funds in August 2022 and received the allocations in December that year.

"Itong Office of the President naman, kinuha niya ito doon sa kanyang contingency fund. Ang problema kasi rito, mayroong definition ng contingency fund at kung saan mo lang siya pwedeng gamitin," she said.

"Wala akong problema kung nagamit iyan sa feeding program, medical assistance ng ating mga kababayan. Pero ang problema riyan iyong pinanggalingan ng pondo na ginamit siya as confidential...Kasi kung galing sa contingency fund iyan, dapat nag-follow rin ito ng rules," she added.

During the deliberations of the OVP's budget, Duterte said the Department of Budget and Management "can better answer the question on the transfer of funds."

She also said the OVP had complied "with the reportorial requirements of the use of the funds as confidential funds."—LDF, GMA Integrated News