PHP 125 MILLION IN FOUR TRAVEL BAGS, THEN GONE | Acosta: Duterte ordered confidential funds released to security officer

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

MANILA – Vice President Sara Duterte personally ordered the release of PHP 125 million in confidential funds to her security officer, Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, the Office of the Vice President disbursing officer who withdrew the money in cash testified before the Senate impeachment court on Monday.

Gina Acosta, the OVP’s former special disbursing officer, said she withdrew the entire amount from the Land Bank of the Philippines on Dec. 20, 2022, and placed it in four oblong-shaped travel bags.

“Nag-utos po sa akin na i-release ang pera na P125 million sa security officer na si Colonel Lachica ay si Ma’am Sara Duterte,” Acosta testified.

Under questioning by private prosecutor Atty. Amando Virgil Ligutan, Acosta identified Duterte as the official who directed her to turn over the funds to Lachica, then head of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group.

“May instruction po sa taas, Your Honor, ng aking head of agency na kung ma-encash ko po ang cheque, i-release ko po kay Sir Lachica,” she said.

“Nilagay ko po sa aking apat na bag,” Acosta said of the withdrawal.

The transfer ran against Item 6.1.2 of COA-DBM-DILG-GCG-DND Joint Circular No. 2015-01, which provides that all cash advances for confidential funds must be personally drawn, disbursed, and accounted for solely by the duly designated and bonded special disbursing officer, and cannot be transferred to anyone else.

Acosta affirmed her November 2024 testimony before the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability that Duterte ordered the transfer because Lachica supposedly knew how to carry out confidential operations. Among those who questioned her at that hearing was Rep. Jinky Luistro, who now sits on the House prosecution panel.

“May utos po ni Ma’am Inday Sara na sa kanya po i-release kasi siya po ang nakakaalam kung paano po i-implement ang mga programs and activities in line po sa confidential activities,” she said.

Acosta said she would not have turned over the money without Duterte’s approval, and that she trusted Lachica because the Vice President did.

She confirmed that the disbursement voucher was signed, the check prepared, and the PHP 125 million encashed on the same day, rejecting the suggestion that the release was rushed. When Ligutan asked who had instructed her to hurry, defense counsel Lindon Bacquel objected to the phrasing and presiding officer Sen. Chiz Escudero sustained the objection.

A driver accompanied her because she could not have carried the cash by hand, Acosta said, adding that she telephoned Lachica immediately after the encashment and handed him the full amount the same day. She said she does not know where he took it.

The money was released to the OVP in bundles of PHP 1 million and was declared spent within 11 days, from Dec. 21 to 31, 2022, including the holidays. Earlier testimony showed that any amount left unspent by Dec. 31 would have been returned to the National Treasury and could not have been retained as OVP savings.

Acosta testified that Lachica supplied the inputs, guidelines, and objects of expenditure for the activities listed in the OVP’s physical and financial plan, and later produced the fund utilization reports on which the liquidation reports were based.

“Nagbe-base lang po ako sa ibinigay ni Sir Lachica ng mga ibinalik niya sa akin,” she said, confirming that she never rejected any of his submissions.

She also confirmed that Lachica’s name appears nowhere in the OVP’s physical and financial plans, accomplishment reports, liquidation reports, or the certifications submitted to the Commission on Audit.

Acosta signed the plan dated Dec. 13, 2022 as project accountable officer, a document that also bears Duterte’s signature. She said she prepared it together with the security officer, but had no personal knowledge of who conceptualized the good governance program the funds were reported as financing, and did not know the criteria used to select its activities.

The 2023 plan was identical to the 2022 version except for a renamed program, with socio-economic program delivery replacing good governance program, she confirmed.

Escudero drew from Acosta a confirmation that tree planting and the Libreng Sakay free-ride program were both liquidated under the good governance program with surveillance costs attached.

The presiding officer later asked her to point to the provision authorizing a security officer to spend confidential funds. She could not.

“Hindi po, your honor,” Acosta answered. “Trabaho po iyan ng disbursing officer.”

Pressed on whether the disbursing officer should hand the funds directly to the recipient, she said: “Wala akong alam. Wala akong security. Wala akong access sa national security information.”

The court had earlier granted the prosecution’s motion to declare Acosta a hostile witness, the first such designation of the proceedings. The motion cited her counter-affidavit stating under oath that Duterte bears no liability for any misuse of confidential funds.

Bacquel argued that adverse interest must emerge through actual examination rather than be established by motion. Escudero granted the motion, noting that it permitted leading questions only, not misleading ones.

Escudero also admitted questions on Acosta’s earlier handling of Davao City confidential funds, but only to establish a pattern of behavior, stressing that nothing she said about Davao adds to the four articles of impeachment.

Over repeated defense objection, Ligutan presented an AI-generated image of PHP 125 million in banknotes and simulated bundles of cash wheeled into the chamber. Bacquel dismissed the props as blue paper wrapped in plastic and asked that they be removed. Escudero allowed them only as simulation.

The OVP reported that the money was used for payments of rewards, purchase of information, and other confidential operations. State auditors, however, questioned supporting documents bearing names that lawmakers have described as suspicious or possibly fictitious.

Among the names that appeared in acknowledgment receipts were “Mary Grace Piattos,” “Chippy McDonald,” “Any Lim,” and “Pikit.” “Mary Grace Piattos” was listed as having received PHP 70,000.

Auditors also flagged the use of confidential funds for supposed surveillance activities conducted during Christmas parties, tree-planting activities, TUPAD payouts, and wheelchair distributions. The documents submitted to support these expenses allegedly contained only certifications that no untoward incident occurred, without specific operational accomplishments.

The Commission on Audit further found deficiencies involving reward payments, including the absence of proof that the confidential operations had succeeded. Purchases of items such as tables, chairs, desktop computers, and printers were also unsupported by the official receipts or sales invoices ordinarily required for commercial transactions.

Monday’s session continued the trial’s work on Article I, which accuses Duterte of misusing PHP 612.5 million in confidential funds at the OVP and the Department of Education.

Direct examination was suspended before it concluded. Escudero told Acosta that the same subpoena holds and directed her to return Tuesday, when the trial resumes at 10 a.m.

The court adjourned at 2:22 p.m., earlier than scheduled, because of severe weather in Metro Manila.