How Sara Duterte pockets or wastes our tax money

Per records of the Commission on Audit and the House of Representatives, Vice President Sara Duterte spent money like there was no tomorrow, with singular alacrity and impunity. No hesitation. No caution. No ad cautelam.

In August 2022, barely two months into office, VP Duterte asked for additional funds from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

In the approved 2022 national budget, Sara’s office had no provision for confidential funds. But she asked for confidential funds, P250 million to be exact. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) scrounged the unauthorized money from other sources, but only partially, P125 million, in the name of a “Good Governance Program.”

On Dec. 20, 2022, a check for P125 million in confidential funds was issued to the Office of the Vice President (OVP), signed by OVP Director for Administrative and Finance Services Rosalynne Sanchez and OVP Assistant Chief of Staff Lemuel Ortonio. On the same day, Special Disbursing Officer (SDO) Gina Acosta withdrew the entire P125 million from the Land Bank Shaw Boulevard in a single transaction. The cash was carted away, literally, in four large gym bags by Ms. Acosta and several companions. After 11 days, the money was gone.

Sara Duterte claimed to have spent the entire P125 million in just 11 days, between Dec. 21, 2022 and Dec.  31, 2022, which included four holidays, which means she wasted P17.857 million (P125 million divided by seven) of our money every working day. The money allegedly went to the following:

• P16 million for rental of safe houses,

• P14 million “Purchase of Information,”

• P10 million “Payment of Reward,”

• P35 million “Purchase of Supplies,”

• P40 million, “Medical and Food Aid” and

• P10 million, travel expenses.

To account for the money, Sara submitted 2,670 receipts to the Commission on Audit (COA).

• One recipient, “Mary Grace Piattos,” was identified as a restaurant and a snack brand. The Civil Registrar certified it has no record of a “Mary Grace Piattos” – of birth, marriage nor death. She also has no parents. Ms. Piattos (bless her) is simply a figment of Sara’s imagination. But she “received” P70,000 worth of medicines on Dec. 30, 2022, a holiday, Rizal Day.

Another recipient was a certain “Cannor Adrian Contis.” Contis is a bake shop and a coffee shop, just like Mary Grace. Sara also had a “senators series,” as recipients: Beth Revilla, Janice Marie Revilla, Diane Maple Lapid, John A. Lapid Jr., Clarisse Hontiveros, Kristine Applegate Estrada, Denise Tanya Escudero, Kris Solon and Paul M. Solon.

COA found receipts with duplicate names and similar handwriting.

• At least 158 DepEd receipts were dated 2023 for expenses made in the last quarter of 2022. Several receipts showed the same people received the money twice, on the same day, both the OVP and Department of Education (DepEd). Many receipts were unreadable, unsigned or lacked necessary details.

The Commission on Audit on Oct. 13, 2023, disallowed P73.287 million of Sara’s expenditures, namely:

• P10 million in cash rewards,

• P34.857 million “Various Goods” and

• P24.93 million “Medicines.”

For Q1 to Q3 of 2023, Duterte received an additional P375 million in confidential funds (P125 million per quarter). The money was also misused.

During Senate budget deliberations on Sept. 4, 2023, Duterte justified her use of confidential funds: “Uhm. Mr. Chair, Your Honor, uh, all of the projects of the Office of the Vice President, uh, use the confidential funds that is (sic) intended for the safe, secure and successful implementation of programs, projects and activities and engagements of, uh, the OVP and all of the satellite offices, including the central office of the Office of the Vice President.”

Sara claimed her office conducts intelligence operations without coordination with established intelligence agencies like the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), Department of National Defense (DND) or the Philippine National Police (PNP):

“Uhh Mr Chair. Your Honor, no. Intelligence starts uhh with the communities and the stakeholders and then if there are complaints, and then it is build (sic) up, uhh, through intelligence and surveillance services and then a dossier or report is started and then, uhm, it goes through levels, uhh, through the Office of the Vice President and the VP SPG so we do not, uhm, seek, ahm, intelligence reports from other government agencies but the intelligence reports starts (sic) from the ground and the communities there that are engaged by the Office of the Vice President.”

Malversation is Article II of the seven Articles of Impeachment filed by the House against Sara Duterte before the Senate Impeachment Court.

Article I is plotting to assassinate President Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez.  Article III is bribery and corruption; Article IV unexplained wealth (she is a multi-billionaire despite holding a job, mayor, that pays only P2 million a year); Article V is conspiracy to commit murder (as Davao mayor for nine years, she launched “Operation Tokhang,” extrajudicial killings); Article VI is Sedition and Insurrection (she declared herself “designated survivor” during BBM’s July 22, 2024 SONA and questioned the legitimacy of BBM’s presidency).

Article VII covers “the totality of respondent’s conduct as vice president,” display of acts constituting a betrayal of public trust, culpable violations of the Constitution and graft and corruption.

Article II, malversation and waste of people’s money, stands out for its breathtaking recklessness, brazenness, shamelessness and impunity. Sara Duterte’s acts make your blood boil. A girl, Mary Grace Piattos, named after a restaurant and a snack, receiving P70,000 for medicine? The gall.

When it comes to spending our tax money, our hard-earned money, Sara Duterte has no equal. And yes, no hesitation. No caution. No ad cautelam.

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