DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 26 November) – Some members of the Committee on Good Governance and Accountability of the House of Representatives said that they were “left with more questions than answers” at the end of 7th public inquiry on Monday, November 25, when four officials from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) appeared and testified on the alleged misuse of public funds.
In a press conference on Tuesday, 1-Rider party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez said that the committee learned that special disbursing officers (SDOs) of the OVP and DepEd released confidential funds to security officers.
The subpoenaed OVP and DepEd executives who attended the House inquiry were Lemuel Ortonio, OVP assistant chief of staff; Sunshine Fajarda, former DepEd assistant secretary; Gina Acosta, OVP special disbursing officer; and, Edward Fajarda, former DepEd special disbursing officer. Vice President Sara Duterte also attended the hearing.
Gutierrez said the SDOs should not have released the confidential funds to Col. Dennis Nolasco and Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, the head of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group, because they (SDOs) were primarily tasked with the duty of disbursing the confidential funds.
The security officers were not even employees of the OVP, he said.
“We thought that with the appearance of four OVP (and DepEd) officials, who are constantly evading the hearing, we would have answers, yet again after seven hearings, we are left with more questions now,” he said.
Based on the testimonies of Acosta and Edward Fajarda, the disbursement of confidential funds was further delegated to Nolasco and Lachica.
“We learned that these funds were delegated to security officers who were not even from the civilian agency. Our understanding is that these two officers, who are mentioned, are both uniformed personnel—separate from the OVP and separate from DepEd,” he said.
Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua, chair of the Committee on Good Governance and Accountability, pointed out that Nolasco and Lachica do not even receive their salaries from the OVP.
Gutierrez believed that allowing security officers to obtain confidential funds was unlawful because “what has been delegated cannot be further delegated.”
He emphasized the need to legislate a law that clarifies the definition of “disbursement” under Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2015-01 of the Department of Budget and Management and the Commission on Audit.
Gutierrez added that this would prevent the SDOs from expanding the interpretation of the word “disbursement” to justify the release of public funds to other officials who are not primarily responsible for disbursing such public funds.
He maintained that releasing confidential funds to security officers and allowing them to disburse further deviated from the intended meaning of “disbursement” under the circular.
Gutierrez said that Acosta and Edward Fajarda “cannot even tell us the smallest details of what we are expecting from the liquidation reports.”
He said the responsible officials could be liable for technical malversation or plunder if public funds were taken “for personal gain.”
Chua noted that a possible legislation that his committee would push might be to restrict the release of confidential funds to agencies that have nothing to do with intelligence gathering. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
