FILE PHOTO: Vice President Sara Duterte attends a House probe into the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd), Nov. 25, 2024. INQUIRER.net / NOY MORCOSO
MANILA, Philippines — The probe of a House of Representatives panel into the budgets of the Office of the Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) under the administration of Sara Duterte will continue, according to a lawmaker.
Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua said the investigation would now shift to the use of public money outside the confidential funds of Vice President Sara Duterte’s offices.
Article continues after this advertisementChua is the chair of the House committee on good government and public accountability, which has been looking into alleged anomalies in the utilization of OVP and DepEd budgets under Duterte.
FEATURED STORIES NEWSINFO House panel wraps up VP Duterte probe NEWSINFO VP's claim to being target of assassination is ‘fake’ – lawmakers NEWSINFO No PSA records of 400 names in DepEd secret fund's receipts – solonAccording to Chua, they will create a “year-ender brief” of what happened in their panel hearings during the past seven weeks, including the committee’s initial findings related to Duterte’s confidential funds in the OVP and DepEd.
READ: Sara Duterte’s threats and theater, a smokescreen to P125 million confidential fund mess?
Article continues after this advertisement“Supposedly, tatapusin na. But unfortunately, ‘yung ibang kasama nating miyembro ni-raise nila ‘yung issue na papaano ‘yung ibang [pondo], not only about confidential funds,” Chua told reporters in an ambush interview before the hearing.
Article continues after this advertisement(Supposedly, it will be finished. But unfortunately, other members of the panel raised the issue on the other funds, not only about confidential funds.)
Article continues after this advertisement“So we have decided that after the hearing today na mag-me-meet kami. Pero siguro by January, so kung papaano namin i-pu-push ‘yung kung pa-paano kami mag-move forward,” he added.
(So we have decided that after the hearing today, we will meet. But maybe by January, we can talk about how we will push forward.)
Article continues after this advertisementREAD: VP Sara Duterte faces 2nd impeachment rap
Chua earlier said that panel members decided to end its inquiry into the OVP and DepEd’s confidential funds before it becomes an “exercise in futility” since groups have filed separate impeachment complaints against Duterte.
During the previous hearings, two OVP officials admitted to releasing confidential funds worth millions of pesos to Col. Raymund Lachica, who was the head of Duterte’s security group, and Col. Dennis Nolasco.
OVP Special Disbursing Officer (SDO) Gina Acosta revealed that she left all the confidential funds to Lachica, who was allegedly tasked to manage them.
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Similarlyslotbet, former DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda said he released confidential funds to Nolasco, who was supposedly assigned by Duterte to disburse them.
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