The architect of abuse and misuse

By Artchil B. Fernandez

After more than two weeks of hearings on Article 1 of the impeachment complaint, which accuses Vice President Sara Duterte of misusing confidential funds worth a combined PHP 612.5 million as head of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), what has been revealed so far?

Based on the testimony of Gina Acosta, former Special Disbursement Officer (SDO) of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), there was indeed an abuse and misuse of public funds. Her testimony this week only bolstered and strengthened her previous admission of the abuse and misuse of people’s money.

During her first appearance in the impeachment court, Acosta admitted she facilitated the withdrawal of the PHP 125 million in confidential funds. She prepared the OVP Physical and Financial Plan, where the said amount was placed under the Good Governance Program with no specific program, activity, or project. Acosta processed the withdrawal of the fund despite violating Joint Memorandum Circular 2015-01, which governs the use of confidential and intelligence funds. Section 6.1.1 provides that cash advances must be used for a specific legal purpose related to confidential or intelligence activities. Furthermore, Section 4.2 requires confidential and intelligence fund allocations to have a proposed amount for each program, activity, and project on which disbursements will be based. These requirements were not followed.

Acosta’s act of releasing the PHP 125 million in confidential funds with no details or specific activities for their use is already an abuse and misuse of public funds since it violated Joint Memorandum Circular 2015-01. This is the first offense of Acosta. But her abuse and misuse of public funds did not end with her withdrawal of the fund.

Acosta aggravated her misdeed by turning over the money to Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, then chief of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG). This again violated Section 6.1.2 of Joint Memorandum Circular 2015-01, which stipulated that the SDO has sole responsibility for handling the confidential fund. The SDO cannot transfer or delegate this responsibility to another person.

There is indeed abuse and misuse of public funds since Gina Acosta broke the rules governing the utilization of confidential and intelligence funds. The question is: Does accountability begin and end with her? Is she solely responsible for the misdeed?

Pinning the blame for the abuse and misuse of confidential funds on Acosta is the attempt of senator-judge Imee Marcos to rescue Sara Duterte. The vice president, Imee Marcos asserts, did not touch the money. Everything was Acosta’s doing, according to Imee Marcos. She made it appear that Sara Duterte was completely clueless.

There is one huge loophole in Imee Marcos’ defense argument. Gina Acosta did not do it all by herself. The OVP Physical and Financial Plan, where the PHP 125 million in confidential funds was placed, was approved by Sara Duterte. The release of the money was authorized by Sara Duterte as head of the agency. Finally, Gina Acosta handed the money to Lachica upon the order of Sara Duterte. The vice president did not personally handle the money, but everything was done under her authorization and order.

Even if Gina Acosta acted on her own volition, she could not have gotten the money released by herself. Without Sara Duterte’s signature on the documents requesting and releasing the fund, Acosta could not do anything. Her signature alone was not enough to move the papers across the bureaucracy. Only when Sara Duterte attached her signature to the papers was the release of the fund set in motion.

Sara Duterte’s role in the release of the confidential fund was made clear by the vice president’s own Assistant Chief of Staff, Lemuel Ortonio, who took the witness stand this week. Ortonio confirmed that it was Sara Duterte who personally signed the Aug. 22, 2022, letter demanding PHP 250 million from the Department of Budget and Management. He also told the impeachment court that Sara Duterte knew of and authorized all activities related to the confidential fund. The fingerprints of Sara Duterte are everywhere in the abuse and misuse of confidential funds. Her DNA is etched into every process and transaction. As head of the agency, the ultimate responsibility is hers.

To pin the blame for the abuse and misuse of PHP 612 million in confidential funds on Acosta, Lachica, Ortonio, and other underlings is not only misplaced but wrong. Hitler, Göring, and top Nazis did not personally kill any Jews but bore responsibility since the genocide was carried out on their orders. In the same manner, Sara Duterte need not personally handle the confidential funds or literally lay her hands on them. Everything, however, was carried out according to her orders. All authorizations came from her.

It is incredible for some senator-judges whose bias and partiality toward Sara Duterte are clear to claim that she had nothing to do with the abuse and misuse of confidential funds. Acosta and Lachica would not and could not move the funds on their own. In short, the architect of the abuse and misuse of confidential funds is Sara Duterte.

The revelations in the impeachment court are not surprising. During her term as mayor of Davao City from 2016 to 2022, Sara Duterte’s confidential funds totaled PHP 2.6 billion. Her SDO at that time was also Gina Acosta. Sara Duterte and Gina Acosta simply brought the Davao City template for the abuse and misuse of confidential funds to the national level. Acosta admitted that turning over the confidential funds to the security officer was their standard operating procedure (SOP). This is their “modus operandi.”

In short, Sara Duterte and Gina Acosta had been abusing and misusing confidential funds for years. Davao City was their laboratory, with the malpractice elevated to the national scale when Sara Duterte became vice president. Acosta is the “Robin,” but the “Batman” of the whole operation is Sara Duterte. She is the mastermind.