VP Sara's drop in ratings connected to House probe —solon

The drop in trust and approval ratings of Vice President Sara Duterte may be connected to her refusal to answer questions during the House investigations into the use of confidential and intelligence funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) when she was its secretary, a lawmaker said on Monday.

“Yes, of course! Kasi nga tinatago niya 'yung mga tinatanong sa kanya, hindi lang ng mga congressman kundi ng taumbayan. Ibig sabihin, 'pag patuloy kang nagtatago at patuloy mong hindi sinasagot 'yung mga tanong na dapat mong sagutin, talagang bababa ang rating mo dahil paano ka pagkakatiwalaan ng ating mga kapwa Pilipino kung hindi mo sinasagot 'yung mga tinatanong sa ‘yo?” TVP Party-list Representative Jose "Bong" Teves Jr. told reporters in an ambush interview.

(Because she is not revealing the answers to questions asked of her, not just by congressmen but also by the public. That means when you continue to hide something and not answer questions that should be answered, your ratings will really go down. How can Filipinos trust you if you do not answer the questions?)

The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability's investigation into the use of the OVP and the DepEd of their confidential and intelligence funds will resume on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

“Siyempre 'yung tinatanong natin — saan napupunta 'yung confidential fund niya, na hindi niya masagot-sagot na 11 days, naubos 'yung P11 milllion. At 'yung P70+ million na hinahanap natin. Siyempre, 'yun ang tinatanong natin ngayon. At siyempre, 'yun naman talaga ang gustong malaman ng ating mga kababayan,” Teves said.

(Of course we are asking — where did the confidential fund go. She could not answer as to how P11 million was used up in 11 days. And the P70+ million that we are also looking for. Of course, we are asking that now. And of course, that is what the public wants to know.)

Tingog Party-list Representative Jude Acidre agrees that the issue should be scrutinized.

“Well, I think we will have to pursue the line of questioning, especially with regards to the Youth Leadership Summit and all the other programs related to the use of the confidential funds. By the amount alone involved, sinabi nila dati ng mga ibang member ng komite na (the other committee members said before that) this really deserves scrutiny. Kailangan talaga natin malaman paano ginamit, sino ang gumamit, at nasa tama ba ang paggamit ng mga confidential funds (We need to know how confidential funds were used, who used them, and was it used correctly),” Acidre told reporters in a separate ambush interview.

House Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. earlier said the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability may recommend the filing of a plunder case against Duterte if she fails to account for P112.5 million in confidential funds when she was DepEd secretary.

When asked to comment, Acidre replied, “If you want to be technical about it, is the amount within the bounds of what can be considered plunder? Probably yes. Is it betrayal of public trust? I think pinaka-concrete na panuntunan ng public trust ang pag-handle ng public funds (the most concrete rule in public trust is the responsible use of public funds). So if we were to be technical about it, yes. But you see, when we do investigations, we also look at how can we prevent this from happening again. How do we institute and do we strengthen our laws and systems para hindi na maulit ang ganito (so this will not happen again)? And how do we exact accountability sa mga taong naging kaparte ng ganitong mga gawain? Hindi lang po ito pag-uusig sa isang tao. Ito pa'y pagtatama ng mali.”

(And how do we exact accountability from the people who were part of this act? This is not a criticism on one person. This is about correcting a wrong.)

When asked about the possible filing of an impeachment complaint against the vice president, Acidre said, “The House has not said anything about impeachment officially. It's only the Vice President who's been saying all about these things. I think we leave it to the right time. Parang perfect date niya. Hindi mo rin alam kung kailan hanggang nangyari na (The perfect date. We do not know when that would be until it happens).”

GMA News Online sought comment from Duterte's camp but they have yet to provide a statement as of posting time.

Duterte’s trust ratings plummeted by six percentage points from 65% to 59% in the OCTA Research non-commissioned survey for the third quarter of 2024.

Her performance rating, on the other hand, also significantly declined by eight percentage points from 60% to 52%. 

The 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. —with a report from Giselle Ombay/KG, GMA Integrated News