Presiding officer Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero. Screen grab from Senate of the Philippines/YouTube.
Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis Escudero questioned how a single special disbursing officer could have personally released confidential funds in several distant locations on the same day.
The issue surfaced during COA-ICFAO supervising auditor Xylene Del Campo’s testimony on the Department of Education’s Php 112.5 million confidential fund spending in 2023, when Vice President Sara Duterte headed the agency.
Del Campo said Edward Fajarda was the sole special disbursing officer authorized by Duterte to handle DepEd’s confidential fund cash advances.
Acknowledgment receipts presented during the hearing, however, showed transactions bearing identical dates but originating from locations scattered across the country.
Receipts dated Feb. 25, 2023, for instance, reflected payments in places including Masbate, Laoag City, Davao City, Olongapo, Samar, Pangasinan, Koronadal City, Batangas, Kalinga, Abra and other provinces.
“If indeed the SDO is the only officer authorized to disburse the funds, then clearly it is physically impossible to be in all of these locations in one day,” Escudero said. Similar patterns were also observed in receipts dated Feb. 21, March 15 and Aug. 9, 2023.
Private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan highlighted the unusual pattern by asking whether an SDO who was “not Superman” could travel to all the locations reflected in the receipts. When the defense objected that the question was speculative, Kapunan replied, “What is speculative about Superman? He can fly anywhere.”
Del Campo later testified that Fajarda had admitted during a House inquiry that he turned over confidential fund cash advances to Col. Dennis Nolasco. According to the auditor, such a transfer violated Joint Circular No. 2015-01, which prohibits transferring a confidential fund cash advance from one accountable officer to another.