RELIGIOUS and lawyers groups and non-government organizations yesterday filed an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte, alleging she willfully misused public funds by fabricating recipients of P612.5 million in confidential funds disbursed by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) which she used to head as concurrent education secretary.
The complaint, the third to be filed against Duterte, accused her of culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust.
“Her deliberate intent was crystal clear in her use of fictitious individuals (Mary Grace Piattos, Kokoy Villamin, Alice Cresencio, and Milky Secuya, to name a few) to sign her acknowledgment receipts. She showed gross faithlessness against public trust. She cannot be Vice President a minute longer,” the complaint said.
A total of 1,322 individuals out of the 1,992 names listed as recipients of the OVP’s P500 million confidential funds have no birth records, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has told the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability which has been looking into the issues hounding the Vice President.
Also without birth records are 405 of the 677 names listed as beneficiaries of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) P112.5 million confidential funds during Vice President Sara Duterte’s term as education secretary. This information was given by the PSA to the panel chaired by Manila Rep. Joel Chua.
The latest impeachment complaint against Duterte was endorsed by Reps. Gabriel Bordado Jr. of Camarines Sur and Lex Colada (PL, AAMBIS-OWA), who are both members of the House minority bloc.
The second impeachment complaint against the Vice President was filed earlier this month by 72 individuals led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), which cited only one ground — betrayal of public trust, which was also anchored on the same acts.
It was filed just two days after the first one filed by civil society and religious organizations led by Akbayan party-list and endorsed by Rep. Percival Cendaña.
That group accused the Vice President of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes.
The complainants of the third impeachment complaint, represented by lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan, are priests Antonio Labiao Jr., Joel Saballa, Rico P. Ponce, Dionisio V. Ramos, Esmeraldo A. Reforeal, and Daniel Franklin Pilario, who are all from the Diocese of Novaliches.
Also listed as complainants are Simon Serrano, founder of Stop Corruption Philippines; Wilfredo Villanueva, founder of Stand Up For God Rosary Group; and the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao represented by Joel Mahinay, Maria Loreto Lopez, and Shanelle Aubrey Gianina Gomez.
“This is primarily based on how the Office of the Vice President, how the sitting Vice President of the Republic disbursed the millions of pesos in 11 days without proper documentation,” Ligutan told reporters.
AUDITED FUNDS
The Commission on Audit has disallowed P73.28 million of the P125 million confidential funds disbursed by the OVP in 2022 and ordered the Vice President to return the funds, which was spent in just 11 days, to the public coffers.
The audit body has likewise issued Audit Observation Memorandums (AOMs) against the P375 million in confidential funds disbursed by the OVP in 2023, after finding irregularities in the use of the funds.
During the committee hearings, it was learned that in late 2022, the OVP spent P16 million for the rent of 34 safehouses for just 11 days, with one safehouse costing nearly P91,000 per day.
The OVP was likewise found to have allocated P15 million for youth leadership summits supposedly conducted with the Philippine Army. Military officials, however, have denied receiving such funds and said its youth leadership summits were funded by the military and local government units, raising suspicions of misrepresentation and fabrication of activities to justify fund utilization.
MORAL OBLIGATION
Ligutan said what makes the third complaint different from the first two is the complainants’ argument “that it’s no longer just a constitutional and legal obligation of the members of Congress to impeach and to remove from office the Vice President.” “That obligation now becomes a moral one,” he said.
The complaint said Duterte’s failure to submit documentary evidence of payment of rewards or proof of success of her offices’ intelligence gathering showed “inexcusable negligence” on her part in ensuring that the people’s money was properly spent.
“When asked to substantiate her claim or certifications, she constantly failed to satisfy COA (Commission on Audit) and the public that she conducted legitimate activities using the confidential funds. Worse, she deliberately concealed the fact that no information gathering or surveillance activities actually took place,” it said.
Bordado said he decided to endorse the complaint because of the “need to uphold the rule of law and protect the integrity of democratic institutions.”
“This decision is not made lightly but with a deep sense of responsibility to ensure accountability at the highest levels of government,” he said.
He also cited as impeachable grounds Duterte’s other acts like her admission that she has ordered a hitman to kill President Marcos Jr., First Lady Lisa Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez in the event she is killed, which Bordado described as “deeply troubling.”
“Such conduct undermines public trust, threatens the stability of our democratic system, and sets a dangerous precedent for behavior unbecoming of a public official,” he said.
Bordado said Duterte’s refusal to appear before legislative inquiries into the allegations has “further eroded confidence in her capacity to serve with transparency and integrity.”
“Her inflammatory statements and apparent disregard for transparency and due process constitute grounds for impeachment,” he said.
