THE chief of staff of Vice President Sara Duterte left for Los Angeles, USA on Monday night, the eve of the scheduled hearing of the House Committee on Good Governance which is looking into the Vice President’s alleged misuse of public funds, particularly confidential funds, worth a total of P612.5 million in both the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd).
Duterte’s chief of staff Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez was among the seven OVP officials who were subpoenaed by the committee to attend yesterday’s hearing.
But House committee secretary Sheryl Lagrosas reported to lawmakers during the hearing that Lopez left the country on Monday night aboard Philippine Airlines flight PR 102 bound for Los Angeles, California, at approximately 10:25 p.m.
Lagrosas, quoting a travel report from the Bureau of Immigration (BI), said that Lopez passed through the immigration counter at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 at 7:31 p.m. on Monday.
The six other OVP officials also snubbed the committee’s subpoena, insisting that the invitation sent to them were allegedly “invalid.”
Lopez and her fellow OVP officials have been invited to testify on the alleged misuse of P500 million in confidential funds allocated to the OVP in Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023.
The six other officials are assistant chief of staff and Bids and Awards Committee chair Lemuel Ortonio, Administrative and Financial Services Director Rosalynne Sanchez, Special Disbursing Officer (SDO) Gina Acosta, and chief accountant Juleita Villadelrey.
Former DepEd Assistant Secretary Sunshine Charry Fajarda and DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda, who are both reportedly now with the OVP, were also issued subpoenas. The Fajarda couple were close aides of the Vice President during her tenure as DepEd secretary from July 2022 until she resigned in July 2024. They reportedly transferred to the OVP after Duterte’s resignation as education secretary in July.
During yesterday’s hearing, the committee learned that five of the six others subpoenaed OVP officials are still in the country based on their latest travel records.
Only Acosta’s status remains unclear due to multiple individuals with the same name.
The seven officials were compelled to attend the House hearing after they snubbed the committee’s invitations four times.
After attending the initial hearing, the Vice President has likewise skipped the subsequent hearings of Chua committee, which is chaired by Manila Rep. Joel Chua.
Chua has said that the panel has no plans to subpoena the second highest elected official of the country because of inter-parliamentary courtesy and tradition.
Chua has earlier requested the Department of Justice (DOJ) to place Lopez and the six other OVP officials on an immigration lookout bulletin (ILBO) after his committee received information suggesting that they were preparing to leave the country.
‘NOT VALID’
In a position paper submitted to the panel, the OVP officials said the October 17 subpoena issued to them was “not valid” because the panel’s first invitation was for the hearing last October 28, which was cancelled.
They also said that the subpoena was only transmitted to the OVP on November 4.
“As the said subpoena issued by the honorable committee bears the information that it was issued for a past October 28, 2024 hearing schedule —which was also reset —it would be improper to receive the same, thus, there was no subpoena for the scheduled proceedings on November 5, 2024. Given these circumstances, the subpoena issued to OVP executives can no longer be legally served nor obeyed as the scheduled hearing date of October 28, 2024, was reset until further notice in an earlier notice given,” the OVP said.
“With due respect to the members of the honorable committee, service of a subpoena must be proper in order not to violate the right to sufficient notice of persons invited in a hearing,” it said. “Considering that there was no validly served and received subpoena, the invited persons would have to rely mainly on the invitation dated November 1, 2024, requesting them to attend the hearing for November 5, 2024, as the OVP only learned the invitation on November 4, 2024.”
It cited Section 8 of the Rules Governing Inquiries In Aid of Legislation, saying “a subpoena shall be served to a witness at least three days before a scheduled hearing in order to give the witness every opportunity to prepare and to employ counsel, should the witness desire.”
The argument of the OVP executives prompted the panel to issue another subpoena, which, Chua said, bears a “heavier penalty” if ignored once again, apparently referring to the panel’s power to cite them in contempt and order their arrest and detention.
The motion to issue a second subpoena was raised by Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano (PL, Abang Lingkod) and seconded by Deputy Speaker David Suarez of Quezon.
The Chua panel also issued subpoenas to two more OVP officials: Budget Division Chief Edelyn Rabago and Chief Administrative Officer Kelvin Gerome Teñido.
Rabago had requested to be excused from participating in the hearing since she is no longer the officer-in-charge of the OVP’s Budget Division since last September 30.
Chua said he could not understand why the OVP officials continue to refuse to attend the House inquiry while other officials have responded to its invitations and cooperated with the probe. “But to accommodate them, and to comply with our three-day rule as pointed out by Congressman Paduano, we will reissue the subpoenas,” he said.
In presenting his motion for the re-issuance of summonses, Paduano cited the three-day rule under which a subpoena must be issued and received three days prior to a hearing.
Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., a senior vice chairman of the investigating panel, said the committee has given the OVP officers enough time to show up in its hearings.
“It’s unfair to us who have been here present and to all those resource persons who have been attending our inquiry. These OVP people have kept insulting us,” he said. “Actually, chairman Paduano is very kind to them. I would have supported a contempt motion.”
In their position paper, the OVP officials insisted that they have the right to decline the invitation, saying they are invited to attend in their capacity as resource persons.
“All things considered, we reiterate our previous position in the case of Calida v. Trillanes that ‘persons invited to appear before a legislative inquiry do so as resource persons and not as accused in a criminal proceeding. Thus, they should be accorded respect and courtesy since they were under no compulsion to accept the invitation extended before them, yet they did so anyway. Their accommodation of a request should not in any way be repaid with insinuations,’” the position paper said.
“We are guided by this ruling of the Supreme Court in that invitations from the Committee may be declined, and that we have the right to respectfully refuse to participate in the proceedings,” it added.
Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonte Adiong however said the ruling of the Supreme Court does not say that individuals “may not appear in the committee proceedings.”
“Parts of the ruling state that we should be conscious about the rights of the invited persons. It does not say that they have the right to refuse to be called into inquiry. In fact, the refusal to attend a committee hearing constitutes a violation under the Revised Penal Code, Article 150,” Adiong said.
PRE-TERMINATED
Lawyer Michael Poa yesterday told lawmakers that he is no longer the Vice President’s spokesman after his consultancy contract was pre-terminated amid the ongoing House investigation.
“I would like to inform the honorable committee that I am no longer connected with the Office of the Vice President (OVP),” Poa said at the resumption of the panel’s hearing yesterday.
“My consultancy contract was already pre-terminated,” he added.
Poa’s contract was terminated after he earlier told the House panel that only Duterte and DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda had sole authority over the agency’s confidential funds when the Vice President was still the education secretary.
Poa previously said that as spokesperson, he was responsible for addressing media queries but had no involvement in the decision-making processes involving confidential fund disbursements.
Poa confirmed yesterday that Lopez and the six other OVP officials and previous DepEd officers subpoenaed by the committee are still connected to the OVP.
“Your Honor, when I was still there, yes, they were connected with the OVP. Although as of today, hindi ko na po talaga masabi factually if they are still connected or not. I would assume, because of the position paper with the letterhead, that they’re still connected,” Poa said. “But I cannot confirm that because nagpaalam po ako na umalis (I already asked permission to leave) prior pa po to the previous hearing that we had.”
There were talks that Poa had been wanting to leave the OVP as he is the only official who is single-handedly defending the Vice President against the allegations of lawmakers in the hearings.
MALVERSATION?
Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said the Vice President is liable for malversation of public funds because of the P10.4 million confidential funds that remain unaccounted for until now. The amount is part of the P15.5 million in confidential funds of the DepEd’s Youth Leadership Summits (YLS) in 2023.
“It is the humble submission of this representation that there is a prima facie case of malversation, and in addition an apparent case of breach of public trust,” Luistro told the hearing.
The panel has been pressing Duterte to explain why the DepEd told the Commission on Audit (COA) that it used P15 million of its confidential funds for eight YLS events in 2023 when it was the AFP that paid for it.
Four military officers, including Army Col. Manaros Boransing, had told the panel that the Philippine Army and local government units spent their own funds for the YLS.
Lawmakers have found out that DepEd, in liquidating P15 million in confidential funds, made it appear that it funded the YLS. The Duterte-led DepEd used the certifications issued by these officers to justify P15 million in confidential funds supposedly allocated for informant payments.
“So, where is this amount now? In conclusion, I wish to believe that the confidential fund of the Department of Education was not properly recorded at its best, or misspent or misappropriated at its worst,” said Luistro.
The lawyer-legislator noted that only the two P2 million confidential fund allocation or P4.2 million have been liquidated by the former education secretary since there were no acknowledgement receipts for the rest of the funds.
Luistro said the liquidation covered only one of the four DepEd programs, which is anti-insurgency. In contrast, programs about “abuse prevention and control within schools, anti-illegal activities operation, anti-extremism/terrorism programs” remained unaccounted for.
She said malversation can be done intentionally. “We (lawyers) call it ‘dolo,’ which is with criminal intent. And it can be done as well by negligence. We call it ‘culpa’ or by negligence. In other words, with or without criminal intent,” Luistro said.
MORE ENVELOPES
Also yesterday, DepEd chief accountant Rhunna Catalan claimed that she was among those who received envelopes containing cash, which she described as an “allowance,” from Duterte when she was still education secretary.
Catalan is the fourth education official to make such an admission before the Chua panel, saying the money was handed to her monthly from February to September 2023 by Sunshine Charry Fajarda, who was at the time DepEd assistant secretary.
She also admitted being “requested” by Fajarda to sign the liquidation vouchers for the P112.5 million in confidential funds, which were withdrawn as cash advances by Fajarda’s husband, Edward, who was then DepEd SDO.
The funds in question were withdrawn through three separate checks, each worth P37.5 million, issued to Edward. The cash advances were made during the first three quarters of 2023.
On the questioning of Paduano, Catalana said Sunshine asked her to sign “because it is needed as a covering letter or covering document to the liquidation documents, supporting documents.”
Catalan explained that when she first received the envelope, she had asked Fajarda if it was part of the confidential funds, but Fajarda told her that it was just “an allowance from the Vice President.”
“Those nine envelopes you received are a form of pressure on your part or from the same person that asked you to sign, am I right?” asked Abante, to which Catalan hesitantly replied, “Maybe, Your Honor.”
Sunshine Fajarda was also named in the previous testimony of former DepEd Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado, who disclosed that she received regular cash payments from the Vice President allegedly intended to influence her in her role as the agency’s head of the procuring entity.
