VICE President Sara Duterte has tapped intelligence experts to help her defense team counter allegations of the House of Representatives that she misused hundreds of millions of confidential funds in both the Department of Education (DepEd), which she used to head as secretary, and the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
Duterte defended the use of aliases by recipients of her confidential funds, such as the now infamous “Mary Grace Piattos,” saying it will be addressed by her defense lawyers during the impeachment trial proper in the Senate since aliases are used in intelligence operations.
“That can be discussed during the trial, ma’am. I do not want to elaborate on intelligence operations. We have an intelligence expert on our side, two actually, who will be our resource persons,” she told reporters at The Hague in the Netherlands last Wednesday, where she is visiting her detained father. “So, let us wait for the trial and as I said yesterday, if there is no trial, then I will answer it publicly. I just want to wait what will happen to the articles of impeachment.”
The Vice President’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, is detained at The Hague facing trial for alleged “crimes against humanity” before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The House of Representatives last February impeached the Vice President based on various allegations, including her alleged misuse of a total of P612.5 million in confidential funds disbursed by both the DepEd and the OVP using alleged dubious recipients.
The complaint also cited Duterte’s spending of P125 million in confidential funds in 11 days.
She is facing seven Articles of Impeachment for alleged betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the constitution, graft and corruption, and other high crimes.
“It can be very well addressed during trial. So, our lawyers are preparing for the trial and collecting pieces of evidence and gathering affidavits from witnesses that they will present during trial,” she said.
The Vice President said it is “wrong for everyone to pick up as truth or as a fact all the pronouncements of the members of the House of Representatives, particularly with the fictitious names, because there are rules in intelligence operations.”
She said “people who work in intelligence say that aliases are used, are often used in intelligence operations.”
Last February, former state auditor Heidi Mendoza, who was then a senatorial candidate, said Duterte is obliged by government rules to disclose both to Congress and the Commission on Audit (COA) the confidential informants of her office.
Mendoza said then the guidelines on the use of confidential funds require the head of the agency to adopt internal controls to ensure accountability of public funds and prevent misuse.
She said the same rules require the head of the agency to produce the list when asked to do so either by the COA or by Congress and that heads of agencies cannot refuse congressmen if they want to verify the names since the House has oversight powers on the government budget.
FOREIGN TRIPS
OVP spokesman Ruth Castelo defended Duterte’s frequent personal foreign trips, saying the OVP can function even in her absence as “there are competent and able people” who can do the job even if the Vice President is absent.
Duterte, from the Netherlands, is set to fly to South Korea on July 27 to meet with the Filipino community there. The following day, the day that president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to deliver his fourth State of the Nation Address, she will fly back home.
Duterte said she accepted the invitation to “personally” meet and thank their family’s Filipino supporters in South Korea.
She could not give an estimate of how much their family has spent for their trips, saying “we don’t count our expenses for showing support (for the former president).”
“But for our travel, we each cover our own expenses. We don’t take from a common fund; we each find our own resources to visit,” she said.
Castelo, in a radio interview, said in mixed Filipino and English, “Any son or daughter would want to stay with his or her 80-year-old father in detention in another country. If they can just stay there, they’d do it,”
Palace spokesman Claire Castro earlier said Duterte could be violating her obligations to the public because of her frequent foreign travels.
Castelo said the Duterte siblings have been taking turns visiting their father “and I don’t know if you can call it a vacation.”
Castelo reiterated her statement that she was not appointed to be Duterte’s “attack dog,” saying she will just do her job to “deliver the message directly, direct to the point and clearly.”
