Vice President Sara Duterte, as head of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and former secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd), remains principally accountable for the handling of confidential funds regardless of what her former special disbursing officers (SDOs) may testify before the Senate impeachment court, lead House prosecutor Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro said Thursday.

Luistro cited the testimony of Commission on Audit (COA) State Auditor Roderick Wamil, who told the impeachment court that under the COA – Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Joint Circular 2015-01, the head of an agency is among those principally accountable for confidential funds.

“Kahit magbago pa sila ng testimonya, klaro na ang naging position ng state auditor (Even if they change their testimonies, the position of the state auditor was clear) – the head of the agency remains to be one of the principally accountable parties,” she said in an online briefing, adding that the joint circular clearly provides for such accountability.

Luistro made the statement ahead of the expected testimonies of former OVP SDO Gina Acosta and former DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda, whom the prosecution intends to present as “hostile witnesses.”

“Apparently, they are considered as hostile witnesses. Hostile because they are attached, associated, and perhaps part ng mga naging proseso nitong (of the processing of these) alleged incidents in the Articles of Impeachment,” she said.

She said Acosta and Fajarda are expected to provide key testimony because they directly handled the confidential funds as SDOs.

“As SDO, sila talaga dapat ang pinaka nakakaalam (As SDOs, they really are the ones who are privy to) what happened to these public funds. That’s why their sworn testimonies are really significant in this impeachment trial,” Luistro said.

She also expressed hope that both witnesses would remain consistent with their sworn testimonies during the House of Representatives’ Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability’s inquiry during the 19th Congress.

“I will not understand if after their clear narration of what happened during the hearing of the Committee on Good Government, ay biglang mababago ang kanilang kuwento (their story would suddenly change),” she said.

During the House inquiry, Acosta testified that she turned over OVP confidential funds to then-OVP security officer Col. Raymund Dante Lachica after encashing them, following Duterte’s instruction. Fajarda similarly testified that he turned over DepEd confidential funds to then-DepEd security officer Col. Dennis Nolasco after encashment, also upon Duterte’s instruction when she was education secretary.

Both SDOs also testified that they did not personally distribute the confidential funds because the security officers handled the disbursement.

Their expected testimonies come after two former LandBank department managers testified that Acosta and Fajarda encashed a combined PHP612.5 million in confidential funds for the OVP and DepEd.

Wamil also identified Acosta and Fajarda as the SDOs responsible for liquidating the confidential funds. He testified that the liquidation reports and disbursement vouchers for both the OVP and DepEd bore Duterte’s approval as head of the agency, and cited audit findings that included unsupported reward payments, expenditures not authorized under Joint Circular 2015-01, and the absence of documentary proof showing the success of confidential or intelligence operations. (PNA)