Hontiveros: Officials can't just wash hands of DepEd's confi funds use in 2023

Officials who utilized the P112 million confidential funds of the Department of Education (DepEd) for 2023 cannot just wash their hands and escape accountability, Senator Risa Hontiveros said Tuesday.

The lawmaker was reacting to the remarks of DepEd Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn Sevilla at the House deliberations of the agency's proposed P793 billion budget for 2025 that the department was unaware of how the confidential fund was utilized.

"This only confirms what many of us have feared—that the allocation of such a significant budget to an agency mandated for education, not conducting surveillance, was misguided from the start," Hontiveros said in a statement.

She recalled how DepEd "provided institutional backing and policy justification" for the confidential fund requested by then-Education Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte.

"Kung ang kagawaran mismo, hindi maipaliwanag kung paano ginamit ang confidential fund, at ang dating kalihim ay umiiwas sa pagsagot tungkol dito, mas lalong nadaragdagan ang duda," Hontiveros said.

(If the department itself cannot explain how the confidential fund was used, and the former secretary is evading questions about it, our doubts only intensify.)  

"Hindi pwedeng maghugas kamay ang ilang opisyal ng ahensya sa usapin ng paggamit ng confidential fund. Kung hindi ito nagamit ng tama at wasto, mananagot din ang sinumang may partisipasyon sa paggamit nito," the senator added.

(Some agency officials cannot just wash their hands of this matter of using confidential funds. If it is not used correctly and properly, those who participated in its use should be held accountable.)

The opposition lawmaker then appealed to the Senate Select Committee on Confidential and Intelligence Funds, Programs, and Activities to look into the matter and the Commission on Audit (COA) to give updates on the use of the secret funds.

"Karapatan ng mga Pilipino na malaman kung saan ginagastos ang perang pinaghirapan natin, hanggang sa huling sentimo," she said.

(It is the right of the Filipinos to know how our hard-earned money was utilized up to the last centavo.)

GMA News Online sought the comment of Vice President Duterte and the Office of the Vice President on Hontiveros' statement but they have yet to respond as of posting time.

Duterte served as Education secretary from July 2022 to June 2024. The Vice President resigned as Education chief on June 19 this year.

Senator Sonny Angara was tapped to replace Duterte as DepEd secretary. —AOL, GMA Integrated News