Former Education Undersecretary Michael Poa testifies before the Senate Impeachment Court on Wednesday, Sept. 2. Poa said he briefed then-Education Secretary Sara Duterte on DepEd’s responses to a Commission on Audit memorandum concerning the agency’s confidential fund expenditures.
Vice President Sara Duterte was kept informed as the Department of Education (DepEd) crafted its response to state auditors questioning its confidential fund expenditures, former Education Undersecretary Michael Poa testified Wednesday.
Facing the prosecution as a hostile witness on Day 21 of Duterte’s impeachment trial, Poa said he told the then-education secretary about the Commission on Audit’s Audit Observation Memorandum and sought her permission to coordinate with former special disbursing officer Edward Fajarda.
Poa said he later reported back to Duterte on what Fajarda told him and the documents gathered to address COA’s observations. He also furnished Duterte with a soft copy of DepEd’s response.
“I briefed her on all of my answers to the AOM, and she said okay,” Poa told the Senate Impeachment Court.
The testimony put Duterte’s knowledge of DepEd’s audit response under the spotlight, although it did not establish that she personally drafted the reply or participated in every confidential fund transaction questioned during the proceedings.
That distinction became sharper when prosecution counsel Benjamin Tolosa Jr. asked whether Duterte approved each payment to confidential informants. Poa declined to make that conclusion. “I wouldn’t know that kung bawat isa,” he said.
Poa also maintained that COA made no finding that the required approval of the agency head was absent. He further testified that the audit observation did not result in a Notice of Suspension or Notice of Disallowance.
Questions over the extent of Poa’s own knowledge also surfaced during the hearing. He acknowledged that he had no firsthand knowledge of particular intelligence operations and did not know about Col. Dennis Nolasco’s alleged role in handling the funds when he prepared DepEd’s response to COA.
The testimony leaves two separate issues for the impeachment court to weigh under Article I: Duterte’s awareness of how DepEd addressed COA’s concerns and whether other evidence establishes her direct involvement in the confidential fund transactions being challenged by the prosecution.