There is “malversation of public funds,” so Rep. Gerville Luistro concluded after her sharp questioning about how the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte spent P125 million in confidential funds in 11 days in December 2022. This was during Rep. Joel Chua’s House Good Government and Accountability Committee hearing last November 5, 2024.
Luistro was surprised that the so-called “Youth Summits” among the VP's programs regarding “youth recruitment by the communists” were being conducted by DepEd for military personnel, instead of the other way around.
Program liquidation issues cropped up during the hearing.
The Commission on Audit (COA), according to the news item in the Inquirer, confirmed that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) submitted 158 acknowledgment receipts (for some P23.8 million in payments) with erroneous dates, and 787 acknowledgement receipts had no names and only signatures. Also, the names in 302 receipts were unreadable.
P25K Monthly
Moreover, during the hearing, “Ma. Rhunna Catalan, chief accountant of the Department of Education (DepEd), said she was given P25,000 monthly for nine months by lawyer Sunshine Fajarda, who had served as DepEd assistant secretary on the watch of Vice President Sara Duterte. Former DepEd Undersecretary and head of procuring entity Gloria Mercado and bids and awards committee chair Resty Osias … said they were given every month P50,000 and P12,000-P15,000, respectively, by Fajarda.”
Observers of the actual hearing in the House or viewers on TV can only speculate why VP Sara Duterte avoided attending the hearings the past weeks.
As commented in socmed, “takot malaman ng bayan and katotohanan ng pagwaldas ng milyones na pera ng bayan!”
“Wow, this VP Sara Duterte feels highly entitled to snub the Congress hearing, or if ever, can refuse to take her oath to tell the truth!”
Duterte's Legacy
That she could afford to act like a spoiled brat while holding the second highest public position in government is probably an arrogant mentality copied from her father, now the civilian Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
Everybody knows now (so does the International Criminal Court) that Mr. Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s main legacy as a government official is having been responsible for more than 30,000 victims of Extra Judicial Killings (EJKs) under his “KIllKillKill” policy in his “War on Drugs” program brutally carried out from the time he was Davao city mayor and during his term as the country’s president.
These findings of anomalies committed by VP Sara Duterte during an official House good government and accountability committee hearing is another bombshell, as it were, to all Filipinos of goodwill.
Public Trust
Rep. Luistro correctly termed the actions taken by VP Sara Duterte as DepEd secretary as “malversation of public funds.”
The people wonder what the DOJ, the "honorable gentlemen" of the Senate and House of Representatives, and by President Bongbong Marcos himself, will take as an active response to the committee’s findings. There were clear violations of VP Sara Duterte in the discharge of her official duties as DepEd secretary and as Vice President, given her mandate of holding a position of “public trust.”
The people expect swift justice in this case, as in all corruption cases committed by government officials, especially those elected by the people.
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