by Daniel Long

 

(This is an updated version of the hit article, “The Truth About VP Sara Duterte’s Confidential Funds,” originally published on December 1, 2024.)

“Impeachment is a sui generis constitutional process — a class of its own. It is dissimilar to civil or criminal cases.” – Atty. Frank Robrigo, Regional Trial Court Judge
1987 Constitution, Article 11, Section 3:
(6) The Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment.
(8) The Congress shall promulgate its rules on impeachment…

Many people believe Vice President Sara Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives because she is corrupt for utilizing ₱125 million in confidential funds in just 11 or 19 days. Many consider the use of such funds abnormal, suspect the short timeframe is either illegal or unethical, and believe Sara pocketed the money. The Senate Impeachment Court recently voted 18-5 to remand the Articles of Impeachment against her back to the HOR, citing questions of constitutionality – particularly the provision that allows only one impeachment case to be filed per year, with this being the fourth. Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna, the author of the impeachment provisions in the 1987 Constitution (Article XI, Section 3), has stated that the SIC’s move to remand the impeachment is “unique but allowable,” and “not unconstitutional,” thus allowing the case to be carried over from the 19th to the 20th Congress. I personally believe she has been practically cleared of corruption so the whole ordeal is just political persecution. Ideally, I support the case being dismissed by the senator-judges and believe it is within their authority to do so. In my view, the business groups, bishops, law schools, elite universities, and law deans who call for her impeachment trial to proceed are not advocating for good governance as they claim, but rather promoting selective accountability.

According to Vice President Sara, the confidential funds were used for the safe, secure, and effective implementation of her office’s programs, projects, and activities. For the Department of Education
(DepEd), the funds were meant to address threats like sexual grooming of students, recruitment into terrorism, school shootings, child involvement in criminal activities, and drug use among students and staff through proper surveillance and intelligence gathering. First, the use of confidential funds is allowed by law. In January 2015, the Commission on Audit (COA) issued guidelines on the use of confidential and intelligence funds. These funds are subject to COA audit but do not require public receipts. The guidelines also don’t regulate how quickly funds must be spent. Ombudsman Samuel Martires, the man tasked with investigating corrupt public officials, pointed out that demanding receipts for confidential funds defeats their purpose. He has also publicly stated that Sara is not guilty of corruption.

Second, it’s not just the Office of the Vice President (OVP) with confidential funds. COA reports the Office of the President (OP) is the largest spender of such funds. In the proposed 2025 national budget, the Marcos administration requested ₱10 billion in confidential and intelligence funds: ₱4.5 billion for the OP, ₱1.8 billion for the Department of National Defense, ₱906 million for the Department of the Interior and Local Government, ₱579.4 million for the Department of Justice, ₱500 million for PDEA, ₱405 million for the Department of Transportation, and ₱18 million for DSWD. Yet only Sara is being singled out over it. Sara found the 2022 congressional and senate hearings on her confidential fund spending divisive and decided not to request funds for 2024 and 2025 anymore. If anything, Sara should be among the least suspected of corruption. As Davao City mayor, she managed billions in confidential funds through initiatives like Peace 911, which cleared 13 barangays of NPA terrorist presence in under two years. Under her leadership, Davao became the 8th richest city in the country and was declared debt-free in 2022. She was also elected with a record-breaking 32 million votes and enjoys the highest trust rating for a public official (61%, Pulse Asia).

Confidential fund audits are under COA’s sole jurisdiction, not Congress or the Senate. While lawmakers have the “power of the purse”, they aren’t auditors. COA is the proper forum. COA’s Atty. Gloria Camora, of the Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office, testified under oath in a congressional hearing that Sara’s use of the funds complied with their laws, with liquidation reports and documentary evidence submitted on time. Both the OVP and the DepEd under Sara even earned “unqualified opinion” ratings, COA’s highest audit rating, for the first time in DepEd’s history in 2022 and again in 2023. In other words, Sara is clean.

The much-sensationalized “₱73M notice of disallowance” isn’t proof of theft but a procedural request for additional documentation. The COA has issued no official judgment finding Sara guilty of any wrongdoing, much less plunder. Sara also faces three Supreme Court cases related to the issue, but due to the sub judice rule, she’s not allowed to publicly comment on how she spent her confidential funds.

Few even know it was President Marcos himself who authorized the confidential fund transfer to Sara only in December 2022, originally requested by her in August 2022, for the implementation of OVP satellite offices and ongoing programs. Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin defended this move, stating the funds were necessary for the new Vice President’s programs in the remaining months of 2022. The ₱125M fund had to be used before year-end in accordance with the law, leaving Sara just 11 days to utilize them. COA confirms it was spent across 132 locations with documentary evidence.

Sara’s detractors claim OVP and DepEd do not need confidential funds because they aren’t security or military agencies. Former VP Leni Robredo didn’t have such funds, but their mandates differ. Leni’s focus was poverty alleviation; Sara’s is national security, especially against the NPA. DepEd, with over 800,000 employees and 6-7 million elementary and high school students, is a prime recruitment ground for the NPA. The CPP-NPA-NDF has been responsible for the deaths of approximately 50,000 Filipinos, including civilians, soldiers, and police officers. This organization is designated as a terrorist group by the United States, the Philippines, the European Union, and Japan. Their tactics include bombings, the use of landmines, and the extortion of revolutionary taxes from the poorest communities. They are involved in the massacre of indigenous leaders, the indoctrination and exploitation of children as combatants, and the sexual abuse of their own female members. They recruit numerous college students to fight and die in remote mountainous and forested areas, while their leaders send their own children to study abroad or attend elite local schools.

Confidential funds are necessary for intelligence work – paying informants and spies, purchasing intelligence and information, and renting safehouses and vehicles. Revealing fund details would compromise these efforts to shield learners and students. In 2023, DepEd even reported NPA recruitment in 16 Metro Manila public schools. In 2020, the AFP reported that 500 minors had been recruited to join the NPA since 2010. Given the NPA’s long established connections with the leftist groups, it’s no surprise they are the noisiest in pushing for Sara’s impeachment and the abolition of confidential funds. Finally, “Mary Grace Piattos” and the other funny names of recipients of confidential funds are merely codenames for confidential informants. Agencies using confidential funds commonly use aliases to protect their identities because of the sensitivity of their work. Demanding a birth certificate for a codename of a confidential informant is silly and can actually put their lives in danger and compromise intelligence work, all for political sensationalism against Sara.

Regarding the Articles of Impeachment, which allege “contracting an assassin and plotting to murder or assassinate the incumbent president, the first lady, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, as publicly admitted by her in a live broadcast,” and the “high crime of murder and conspiracy to commit murder,” I submit that VP Sara never used the terms “assassin” or “assassination” during her Zoom press conference. The statement “If I am killed, kill X” was a conditional statement and represents an impossible crime, as one cannot commit murder beyond the grave. Furthermore, “conspiracy to commit murder” is not a recognized crime under Article 8 of the Revised Penal Code, which specifically penalizes “conspiracy to commit treason, sedition, or coups,” but not murder.

Billions are rumored to have been bribed to congressmen, with some practically admitting the scheme, such as Congressman Toby Tiangco, the campaign manager for President BBM’s Alyansa Senate slate, in exchange for signing the impeachment. Meanwhile, President BBM had access to ₱4.5 billion in confidential funds. The 2025 national budget has been described as one of the most corrupt, with significant cuts to essential programs such as the Department of Education (DepEd) and PhilHealth. Respected Philippine Star columnist Jarius Bondoc, in his February 7, 2025 column, criticized the pork barrel, stating, “The fund juggling was for impeachment payolas. Impeachment is dirty politics – blatant lying, transactional alignments, and bribery.” Furthermore, the 2025 bicameral committee report is riddled with blank checks and insertions totaling billions of pesos. A highly irregular transfer of ₱89 billion from PhilHealth’s excess funds to the national treasury is currently under review by the Supreme Court, which has ordered the return of the funds. There’s also the long-standing issue of the 5,500 ghost flood control projects. The “777 ayuda” scheme, exposed by Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong, covers financial aid programs such as AICS and AKAP. Also, congressmen and senators continue to receive ₱18 billion annually in Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOEs), liquidated only by mere certification under Senate Resolution No. 10, with no receipts provided. I argue that those who remain silent about these anomalies are not truly anti-corruption but are, in fact, simply anti-Duterte. And that, to me, is the height of hypocrisy!

Let’s be clear: The Filipino people, or taumbayan – law-abiding, hardworking, middle-class families, OFWs, police, and soldiers -support VP Sara Duterte. In contrast, the oligarch elites of the Makati Business Club, the Makabayan bloc, hypocritical activist bishops and priests, corrupt and narco-trapos backed by the current dispensation, Sinophobic pro-US warmongers largely financed by USAID, and woke Yellow-Pink liberal brats in the universities want her convicted in the impeachment trial. These hypocrites must stop using the taumbayan’s name in vain.

In my view, the impeachment trial of VP Sara Duterte is more about certain politicians’ electability than her accountability. She poses a direct threat to their presidential ambitions in 2028. If it were truly about accountability, they would file cases in court, as the penalty for a conviction in impeachment is simply removal from office and perpetual disqualification from running for any government position. Even if she is innocent or vindicated in the trial, they want to remove her from the 2028 presidential race by any means necessary – truth be damned.

   

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