Romualdez calls on Sara to face House panel, explain confidential fund spending

Vice President Sara Duterte should face the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability to explain the disbursement of confidential funds by her office and that of the Department of Education when she was the secretary.

Speaker Martin Romualdez made the call on Thursday after Office of the Vice President chief of staff Atty. Zuleika Lopez told the House inquiry on the OVP and the DepEd's use of confidential funds that she had no role in the release of the confidential funds.

Other OVP officials namely Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Gerome Tenido, Chief Accountant Julieta Villadelrey, Director for Administrative and Finance Services Rosalynne Sanchez, and Budget Division officer-in-charge Edelyn Rabago have said the same.

“Dapat lang siyang sumipot at mag-oath, mag-salita at mag-eksplika dahil lahat ng mga opisyales niya… siya lang yata may alam kung anong nangyari diyan sa mga pondo eh. Kaya dapat siya ang mag-paliwanag,” said Romualdez, a lawyer like the Vice President.

Romualdez made the remark in a chance interview in Albay during the government's turnover of millions of aid for typhoon victims.

(She should show up and take an oath, speak up, and explain... It appears she is the only one who knows about those funds. That is why she has to explain herself.)

“Huwag na niyang ibigay sa mga officials niya sa OVP at sa DepEd. Siya na lang magsalita,” the Speaker added.

(She should not pass the responsibility to the officials at the OVP and the DepEd. She should be the one to speak.)

GMA News Online has sought the Vice President's comment and will publish it as soon as it is available.

She showed up on Day 1 of the said House panel inquiry but she did not take an oath.

Instead, she read a statement and called out the House members for conducting an inquiry to build up an impeachment case against her.

Sara Duterte said there was no use in defending her office's proposed budget for 2025 because Romualdez controlled the budget allocations.

This has been denied by Romualdez and his allies, saying that the budget process did not allow the Speaker to allocate funds on his own.

Also on Thursday, House good government and public accountability panel chairperson Manila Rep. Joel Chua of Manila said impeaching the Vice President was a reasonable action although it may be not possible with the looming campaign and May 2025 elections.

Lopez was cited in contempt on Wednesday by the same House committee for alleged undue interference in the inquiry after she confirmed that she signed a letter asking the Commission on Audit not to comply with the subpoena issued by the House Committee on Appropriations in August concerning audit findings on the how OVP and the DepEd under the Vice President's leadership used the confidential fund.

Other OVP officials namely Assistant Chief of Staff Lemuel Ortonio, Special Disbursement Officer Gina Acosta, and husband-and-wife Edward and Sunshine Fajarda, have also been cited in contempt and ordered arrested by the same House panel for continued failure to show up before the ongoing inquiry.

The next House inquiry on OVP and DepEd budget use has been set on November 25.

The ongoing House panel inquiry has so far revealed the following:

• the OVP spent P16 million of its P125 million confidential fund in 2022 for safehouses
• the DepEd under Vice President Duterte submitted certifications from military officials to justify confidential fund use without the consent of the military personnel
• the OVP and DepEd submitted acknowledgement receipts with wrong dates, unnamed signatories, if not unreadable signatories in liquidating the confidential funds it received in 2022 and 2023, among others.

—NB, GMA Integrated News