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November 11, 2024 | 4:18pm
MANILA, Philippines — Four Office of the Vice President officials were cited in contempt and ordered detained on Monday, November 11, after repeatedly refusing to attend the House probe into alleged misuse of public funds under Vice President Sara Duterte.
The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability no longer extended its patience with the following officials, ordering their arrest at the House of Representatives’ detention facility:
- Gina Acosta, OVP special disbursing officer
- Lemuel Ortonio, OVP assistant chief of staff and Bids and Awards Committee chair
- Sunshine Fajarda, former Department of Education (DepEd) assistant secretary
- Edward Fajarda, former DepEd special disbursing officer
Who are these four OVP officials?
Acosta is the OVP special disbursing officer who signed the physical and financial plans for the confidential and intelligence funds of the agency.
House lawmakers have expressed skepticism about the P125 million confidential and intelligence funds used in just 11 days in December 2022. This includes the P16 million spent for the rental and maintenance of 34 safehouses.
The same amount of P16 million was disbursed in the first half of 2023, with an additional P5 million allocated during the third quarter.
The OVP also received a notice of disallowance — indicating irregularities in spending — for P73 million of the P125 million in confidential and intelligence funds. These funds were used for the purchase of information, rewards, medical and food aid, supplies and travel expenses.
Ortonio, meanwhile, is one of the two officials who signed the check payments on the confidential funds.
Sunshine and Edward Fajarda, a husband-and-wife duo, have been named by other DepEd resource persons. Three officials identified Sunshine as the one who provided them with monthly cash envelopes, with the largest amount totaling P450,000.
RELATED: Ex-DepEd official claims VP Sara gave out P50,000 cash envelopes
Edward was said to be the DepEd special disbursing officer who issued three checks amounting to P112.5 million in cash advances from the agency’s confidential and intelligence funds.
Meanwhile, OVP Chief of Staff Zuleika Lopez was granted a free pass from the committee’s fourth hearing on November 11 after mentioning in her excuse letter that her aunt overseas required assistance due to medical emergencies.
House lawmakers instead agreed to issue Lopez a final subpoena before citing her for contempt if she fails to attend the hearing again.
These are only five of the nine OVP officials invited. It is the first time that four other OVP officials, besides Duterte herself and the agency’s former spokesperson Michael Poa, made an appearance before the committee.
Four OVP officials present
At previous hearings, the good governance committee was only able to question officials from the Commission on Audit (COA) and DepEd, as the invited — and later subpoenaed — OVP officials consistently refused to attend.
The OVP officials even submitted a position paper on October 17 arguing that the inquiry “lacks a clear legislative objective” and that fund expenditures had already been addressed during the agencies’ budget hearings for 2025.
Several of the invited OVP officials have snubbed the past three hearings since the first one was held on September 18.
It was only after the third hearing on November 5, when the committee issued a lookout bulletin and warned of contempt citations, that four OVP officials attended the fourth hearing.
The following appeared at the fourth hearing:
- Rosalynne L. Sanchez, OVP administrative and financial services director
- Julieta Villadelrey, OVP chief accountant
- Kevin Gerome Tenido, OVP chief administrative officer
- Edelyn Rabago, OVP budget division officer-in-charge
While these officials were present, however, they told lawmakers that they have no personal knowledge of how the confidential funds were spent.
All they confirmed with the committee is that Lopez, Acosta and Duterte are the three officials aware of where the secret funds were used.
The House good governance panel is also looking into DepEd’s “youth leadership summits” and information education campaigns under the agency’s counterinsurgency program.
Rep. Joel Chua (Manila, 3rd District), who leads the inquiry, has previously mentioned that the committee has identified these irregularities as indicative of graft and corruption, as well as a breach of public trust, which could serve as grounds for the vice president’s impeachment.