THE P125 million confidential fund of the Office of the Vice President in December 2022 took away scarce resources that should have gone to essential services for Filipinos for some unknown expenditure that the agency has yet to explain.
This was the reaction of House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro to the consolidated comment filed by the camp of Vice President Sara Duterte asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the petitions that questioned the constitutionality of the fund transfer.
In a statement, Castro disputed the assertion of Duterte’s counsel that the petition she filed with fellow Partylist Reps. Arlene Brosas (Gabriela) and Raoul Manuel (Kabataan) and Bayan Muna chairperson Neri Colmenares do not warrant the attention of the High Court for lack of any justiciable controversy.
The lawmaker countered that the petition forces scrutiny of the abuse of public funds by elected officials and how they can be held to account.
“This illegal and unconstitutional transfer of P125 million to the Office of the Vice President for confidential funds violated all rules on the proper use of such funds. It represents a massive redirection of public resources away from essential services and towards opaque purposes with no accountability. It is a glaring example of bureaucrat capitalism and should be stopped,” Castro said.
She noted that the paper trail of the P125 million showed it appears to have been spent within just 11 days.
“The petitioners … are seeking the restitution of the P125 million in public funds that were unlawfully used with no oversight. We have asked the Supreme Court to direct COA to fully audit how this money was spent,” the lawmaker said.
Castro stressed that the 2022 national budget did not allocate any confidential funds for civilian agencies like the Office of the Vice President so the transfer of P125 million for the OVP’s confidential fund had zero congressional authorization.
“This case goes beyond just theoretical arguments about budget rules. Real public money that could have helped struggling Filipinos was instead funneled into a legal gray area with zero transparency. The people deserve to know where their money went,” she added.
Colmenares said the stand taken by the Vice President was “absurd and a mere speculation” since the petition raised a specific question on the constitutionality of the transfer of the P125 million to the OVP to be spent on confidential purposes.
“Our petition to challenge the constitutionality of the allocation of P125 million confidential fund to the OVP and VP Sara Duterte’s spending of this huge amount of public funds in just 11 days is very strong. Art. VI Sec. 29 (1) of the Constitution states that no money shall be spent “except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law.” There was no confidential fund for the OVP in the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA), therefore any transfer to the OVP and spending of confidential funds violates the Constitution”, Colmenares said.
He pointed out that the P125 million was spent by the Vice President even if the OVP budget had no such expense item.
At the same time, he called out the Commission on Audit (COA) to make good on its promise to conduct a special audit of confidential funds last year.
“We now ask COA where this Audit Report is as we demand that COA bares the report to the public. Taxpayers have the right to know how their money was spent and COA has the duty to audit all confidential funds given to civilian agencies and officials,” the former lawmaker said.
