Photo courtesy of Ping Lacson/Facebook.
Senator-judge Panfilo Lacson questioned what he described as “copy-paste” entries in the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) regular programs and confidential and intelligence fund plans, saying nearly identical descriptions raised questions about how the funds were programmed and documented.
During Wednesday’s impeachment proceedings, Lacson compared appropriations under the 2022 and 2023 General Appropriations Acts with the OVP’s physical and financial plans for confidential funds. In 2022, the OVP had Php 621.6 million for its “good governance program” and received Php 125 million in confidential funds in the fourth quarter. The following year, it had Php 2.21 billion for “socio-economic program delivery” and Php 500 million in confidential funds, released at Php 125 million per quarter.
Lacson also pointed to the OVP’s 2022 and 2023 confidential fund plans, which listed targets including the “number of identified areas with surveillance conducted and monitored” and the “percentage of activities implemented without untoward security-related incidents.”
“Paulit-ulit ito. Kayo naman matalinong tao at witness, ano po ang analysis ninyo diyan? Very simply paano nyo analyze ganitong klaseng descriptions? Kung analyze ninyo di ba insulto sa common sense?” Lacson asked OVP Assistant Secretary and Assistant Chief of Staff Lemuel Ortonio.
He also questioned why the nomenclature and physical targets appeared to have been carried over between the regular and confidential fund programs. “I think it’s stupid. Sana man lang binago-bago nang kaunti,” he said. Lacson later clarified that the word “stupid” referred to the program descriptions, physical and financial plans and targets, not to any individual.
The issue formed part of a broader examination of the OVP’s handling of confidential funds. Earlier in the trial, former OVP special disbursing officer Gina Acosta testified that the entire Php 125 million she withdrew in the last quarter of 2022 was released to then-OVP security officer Col. Raymund Dante Lachica. She also said more than Php 80 million was released to him in the first quarter of 2023, with further releases after later withdrawals.
Lacson also raised the possibility of subpoenaing records behind the confidential fund programs to determine whether aliases appearing in documents corresponded to actual informants who received reward money. Presiding Officer Francis Escudero said the impeachment court could use its subpoena power at the appropriate time.
“There’s a presumption nagamit nang maayos but still there’s that doubt, we cannot remove that, because there are so many issues na lumabas sa aming trial. And we want to be satisfied. After all we will be deciding on the basis of evidence and kung anong tingin namin ano ang tama o ano ang mali,” Lacson said.