VP Sara may face impeachment over fund use —House panel chair

House committee on good government and public accountability chairperson and Manila 3rd District Representative Joel Chua said Monday he sees grounds for impeachment in Vice President Sara Duterte's use of funds.

Chua was referring to the Office of the Vice President's use of P16 million budget supposedly for safe houses and P15 million supposedly for a youth summit.

“In these two instances, unless of course mapatunayan nila na justified ang kanilang paggamit, but as we see it talaga may liability po sila,” Chua told reporters in a virtual interview.

(In these two instances, unless of course they can prove that their use is justified, but as we see it, they really have liability.)

“Now those two instances masasabi po natin ay ground for impeachment because obviously there was betrayal of public trust at saka 'yung anti-graft,” he added.

(Now those two instances we can say there are grounds for impeachment because obviously there was a betrayal of public trust and then the anti-graft.)

Aside from betrayal of public trust and graft and corruption, the other grounds for impeachment are culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, and other high crimes.

GMA News Online sought comment from Duterte through her spokesperson Michael Poa but they have yet to provide a statement as of posting time.

The Office of Vice President (OVP) under Duterte spent P16 million of its P125 million confidential funds in 2022 for payment of safe houses for 11 days, according to the OVP accomplishment report.

This was presented by the Commission on Audit (COA) during the House investigation on OVP’s budget use on October 17.

Lawyer Gloria Camora of COA’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office confirmed that the OVP made the P16 million payment as can be seen in 34 acknowledgement receipts it submitted covering the dates December 21 to 31.

Antipolo Representative Romeo Acop, a retired police official, pointed out that one of the receipts showed a P500,000 payment for a safe house.

Camora said this could mean that the OVP spent around P45,000 per day for a safehouse.

“Una na dito yung issue po sa safe houses which amounted to P16 million, napakalaki ng presyo at hindi naman po nila maipaliwanag,” Chua said.

(First, the issue with the safe houses which amounted to P16 million, the price is huge and they can't explain it.)

Aside from this, the Department of Education (DepEd) under then secretary Duterte used certifications from military officials to justify the disbursement of P15 million of its confidential funds for payment of informants in 2023.

This was based on OVP’s documentary submissions to the Commission on Audit (COA) that stated that such expense was for the Youth Leadership Summit (YLS).

However, all the soldiers who provided certifications to the OVP later confirmed they did not know that their certifications would be used to justify the OVP’s P15 million confidential fund spending for informants.

“Ang pangalawang isyu na naklikita natin dito ay doon sa DepEd, yun pong inisyo na certification ng mga Army apparently to justify yung paggamit nila ng worth more than P15M confidential fund,” Chua said.

(The second issue was with the DepEd, the certification issued by the Army apparently to justify their use of a confidential fund worth more than P15M.)

“But unfortunately it was denied by the Army na may download na pera sa kanila for the purpose of youth leadership summit,” he added.

(But unfortunately the Army denied that the money was downloaded to them for the purpose of a youth leadership summit.)

If Duterte or her officials will fail to explain the issues, Chua said the House panel will discuss further if an impeachment complaint will be filed against her.

Chua said the next hearing on Duterte’s funds use may be resumed by next week.—AOL, GMA Integrated News