The Office of the Ombudsman will review the complaints filed against Vice President Sara Duterte over alleged misuse of confidential funds (CFs) by her office and the Department of Education (DepEd) during her tenure, according to newly appointed Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla.
The 64-year-old former justice secretary made the remark following his appointment on Tuesday afternoon.
‘Actually, those reports are already with the Ombudsman. We will open them, study them, and question those who are currently in charge – as well as those who had the duty to handle the cases before we arrived,’ Remulla said in Filipino.
Apart from Duterte, respondents of these complaints also include other DepEd and Office of the Vice President (OVP) officials, like Chief of Staff Zuleika Lopez, Assistant Chief of Staff Lemuel Ortonio, Special Disbursing Officer Gina Acosta, former DepEd officials Sunshine Fajarda, and Edward Fajarda, among others.
Last year, Duterte’s office drew criticism for the alleged misuse of its 2022 confidential funds, which became the subject of an investigation by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.
During the hearings, two officials from the OVP admitted to releasing millions in CFs to security officer Col. Dennis Nolasco and Col. Raymund Lachica, the head of Duterte’s security group.
OVP special disbursing officer (SDO) Gina Acosta said she turned over all the funds to Lachica, who was assigned to manage them.
Similarly, former DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda said he released the department’s CFs to Nolasco, whom Duterte had designated to disburse the funds.
The panel’s findings showed that Acosta encashed P125 million per quarter between late 2022 and 2023, while Fajarda encashed P37.5 million per quarter in 2023.
Moreover, two names – Mary Grace Piattos and Kokoy Villamin – listed in the acknowledgment receipts (ARs) for confidential fund expenditures of both the OVP and DepEd, could not be found in the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) records.
In September, Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo confirmed that the OVP’s P125-million CF in 2022 was spent in just 11 days – shorter than earlier reports claiming it was exhausted in 19 days.
The Commission on Audit’s 2023 report, released in December, also showed that the OVP spent over P375 million in 2023 – triple the amount recorded the year before. /mr