VP avoids queries on intel funds, cites impeachment trial defense
Vice President Sara Duterte appeared finally at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, after being a no-show last week, but refused to answer questions regarding her confidential fund (CF) expenditure, citing preparations for her stalled impeachment trial.
The Office of the Vice President (OVP) has a proposed budget of P902.8 million approved by the Department of Budget and Management, including P673.7 million for maintenance and other operating expenses and P56 million for travel expenses, among others.
ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio asked Duterte several times about her expenditures at Tuesday’s hearing by the House committee on appropriations—including the notice of disallowance issued by the Commission on Audit (COA) against P73 million in CF transactions by the OVP.
Duterte initially urged Tinio to ask the COA instead about these issues. But when Tinio asked her about the succession of CF expenses in December 2022, Duterte said “this is the subject of an impeachment trial and I would not like to discuss the defense for the impeachment trial.”
“I would just like to note that there is no impeachment trial for now,” Tinio said in response. “In fact it is archived in the Senate.”
‘Pending motion’
But the Vice President stuck to her answer when Tinio asked about the OVP’s acknowledgment receipts (ARs) signed by the name of Mary Grace Piattos, along with other seemingly strange names which House lawmakers had earlier questioned and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) did not find in its records on live births, marriages and deaths.
“The [OVP] submitted 2,670 accomplishment reports for the liquidation of P500 million worth of confidential funds, …and 1,322 out of 1,992 names in the OVP ARs submitted to the PSA have no birth records, so this includes the names Mary Grace Piattos, Fernando Tempura, and there’s even a Chel Diokno,” Tinio said, referring to a fellow lawmaker by that name.
Duterte insisted that. “I cannot discuss defense strategy.”
“The subject confidential funds is the matter in impeachment proceedings, which is archived but there is a pending motion for reconsideration before the Supreme Court,” she said. “I cannot [also] discuss intelligence operations [by my office] and cannot explain how intelligence operations are done without compromising national security.”
Anticipating next impeachment
She later told reporters she was still expecting a new impeachment case by next year, after the Supreme Court ruled on July 25 that the articles of impeachment which the House transmitted to the Senate on Feb. 5 violated Article XI, Section 3(5) of the Constitution saying that “no impeachment proceedings shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year.”
“If there is no impeachment now in 2025, I’m sure they will file [an impeachment case against me] in 2026, they will file in 2027, or in 2028 right before the presidential elections,” Duterte said. “So, this is all about the presidential election of 2028.” —WITH A REPORT FROM DEMPSEY REYES
