MANILA – A third impeachment complaint has been filed against Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio regarding the alleged anomalous disbursements of confidential funds to her office and the Department of Education (DepEd) during her tenure as secretary.
The 70-page complaint, filed by a coalition of Catholic priests, civil society leaders, and lawyers at the House of Representatives, cited culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, plunder and malversation, bribery, graft and corruption, and other high crimes as grounds for impeachment.
The said impeachment complaint was endorsed by Camarines Sur Representative Gabriel Bordado Jr. and AAMBIS-Owa Rep. Lex Colada.
“On behalf of the Filipino people, complainants believe that it is not only the constitutional obligation of the members of the House of Representatives to impeach and for the Senate to remove from office Vice President Sara Z. Duterte. That obligation now becomes a moral one,” the complaint stated.
Based on the complaint, it said that Duterte-Carpio was the “accountable officer” of the confidential funds, particularly the P125 million received by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in 2022 and P112.5 million received by the DepEd in 2023, as head of both agencies.
Recently, OVP special disbursing officer (SDO) Gina Acosta, in a House Good Government and Public Accountability hearing, admitted releasing P125 million in confidential funds to Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, the commander of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group, on Dec. 20, 2022.
DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda, for his part, disclosed that P37.5 million in confidential funds for the first quarter of 2023 was turned over to Col. Dennis Nolasco, DepEd’s designated security officer.
“There arises the valid presumption that VP Sara had knowledge of these irregularities in the disbursement of the agencies’ confidential funds committed by her immediate staff Acosta, Fajarda, Lachica, and Nolasco,” the complaint said.
It also pointed out that the acknowledgment receipts submitted to the Commission on Audit (COA) to justify the use of confidential funds were “fabricated”.
“Now, if the persons supposed to have received the confidential funds from the OVP are non-existent, and the funds are no longer with the OVP, then clearly the funds were taken and/or misappropriated,” the complainants said.
“Vice President Sara only used these fictitious individuals to create the illusion that the confidential funds were properly used. In truth, she misappropriated them,” they added.
In terms of technical malversation, the complaint cited irregularities in the use of the OVP’s confidential funds to purchase tables, chairs, desktop computers, and printers amounting to P3.5 million, which are prohibited under the Commission on Audit-Department of Budget and Management (COA-DBM) Joint Circular No. 2015-001.
For betrayal of public trust, the complainants said the Vice President’s “continuous failure” to prove that she conducted legitimate activities using the confidential funds evidenced “inexcusable negligence” on her part to ensure that the Filipino people’s money was properly spent.
“How could such irregularities occur under VP Sara’s watch? What does this say about her leadership and her commitment to accountability? And most critically, where did these confidential funds actually go? And how can the Filipino people continue to trust the Vice President with their public funds?” they said.
The impeachment complaint also accused Duterte-Carpio of bribing DepEd officials by distributing cash envelopes containing amounts ranging from P12,000 to P50,000./PN
