THE Office of the Vice President (OVP), led by Sara Duterte, exhausted its P500 million in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) within just seven months, with the Commission on Audit (COA) flagging nearly half—over P237 million—as questionable.

These COA findings prompted House Assistant Majority Leader and Zambales 1st District Rep. Jay Khonghun to again call on the Vice President to cease from being evasive and stop her diversionary tactics by directly providing a clear explanation to the Filipino people regarding her questionable use of CIF.

“The P73 million disallowed by COA is just the beginning of a broader pattern of seeming misuse or mismanagement of government funds, as an additional P164 million has been flagged in audit observation memorandums (AOMs),” Khonghun said.

He added: “We are seeing a disturbing pattern of misuse or mismanagement of government funds. Vice President Duterte needs to explain this to the public—she owes the Filipino people transparency and accountability.”

The COA flagged a total of P237 million from the OVP’s CIF, with P73.3 million already disallowed and P164 million highlighted in AOMs.

Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Angela Suansing summarized the COA findings during the committee deliberations on the proposed P2.037 billion budget for the OVP in 2025.

The House Committee on Appropriations eventually recommended reducing the OVP’s budget to P733.19 million, with the slashed P1.29 billion proposed to be realigned to programs under the

Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Health to assist indigents.

Suansing also presented the summary of COA findings during the recent hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, where the Vice President declined to participate by refusing to take her oath as a resource person, not answering lawmakers’ questions, and leaving shortly after delivering a statement criticizing the investigation.

The summary showed that the OVP was allocated a total of P625 million in CIF for the last quarter of 2022 and all of 2023. So far, COA has audited P500 million—P125 million for 2022 and P375 million for 2023.

The OVP spent its P125 million allocation for the fourth quarter of 2022 in just 11 days, averaging P11.364 million per day. Of this amount, P73.3 million, or 58.6 percent, was disallowed by the COA, which has directed the Vice President and other “accountable officials” of the OVP to settle the amount.

For 2023, the COA issued AOM detailing its adverse findings on the use of P125 million in CIF each quarter up to the third quarter.

Suansing’s summary indicated that auditors flagged expenses totaling P67 million, or 53.6 percent of the allocated amount for the first quarter, P62 million (49.6 percent) for the second quarter, and P35 million (28 percent) for the third quarter.

“This is public money—hard-earned taxes of Filipinos. We need to know how it was spent, especially with COA raising red flags. The Vice President must address these concerns head-on,” he said.

The summary of findings presented by Suansing also revealed that the OVP exhausted the P500 million CIF in 209 days or 7 months, with an average daily expenditure of P2.4 million.

For “purchase of information,” the OVP disbursed P14 million between Dec. 21-31, 2022, P10 million from Feb. 6-March 29, 2023, P12 million from April 25-June 30, 2023, and P20 million from July 14-Sept. 30, 2023.

Moreover, P72 million was spent on “payment of reward” during these periods, with the OVP claiming to be conducting “surveillance and monitoring” activities.

The OVP also spent P152 million on “purchase of supplies,” P53 million on the rental and maintenance of safe houses, and P122 million for “provision of medical and food aid.”

The P73.3 million in CIF disbursements in December 2022 that were disallowed by COA included P34.857 million for “various goods” and P24.93 million for “medicines,” both categorized under “payment of reward.” An additional P3.5 million spent on “chairs, tables, desktop computers, and printers” was also disallowed.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Jester P. Manalastas