Vice President Sara Duterte is facing scrutiny after the House of Representatives’ Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability revealed that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) over-liquidated P23.8 million in confidential funds.
Rep. Joel Chua, chair of the committee, asked 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo “Rodge” Gutierrez whether the OVP had exceeded the limits on their liquidation reports.
“So what you’re saying is they exceeded in their liquidation reports?” Chua asked.
Gutierrez alleged that around 158 acknowledgement receipts (ARs) submitted to the Commission on Audit (COA) have documentation issues.
“Your guess is as good as ours. It could also be that these ARs were belatedly prepared,” Gutierrez replied.
The ARs were found to be dated 2023, despite the funds being used in 2022.
“For 158 people to make the same mistake, is that something that would be acceptable margin of error for COA?” Gutierrez questioned, emphasizing the irregularities.
“These are clear red flags in relation to the ARs submitted by the OVP, and this is something that we should consider,” he added.
COA official Gloria Camora acknowledged the possibility of “inadvertent and typographical mistakes” by OVP personnel but suggested the errors could have been unintentional. She noted that some receipts were undated, and others had incorrect dates.
However, Gutierrez remained unconvinced, describing the irregularities as suspicious. He pointed to similarities in penmanship, identical signatories (such as “AAS” and “JOV”), and consistent ink color used across the receipts, raising concerns about their authenticity.
A total of 776 ARs were reviewed, with 302 containing unreadable names and five names repeated.
“More likely, this was the same mistake committed by perhaps a few people. Which raises the question: Are these ARs spurious? Are they bogus? Are they false?” Gutierrez said.
“We want to make sure that this does not happen again,” he added, stressing that accountability must be ensured.