By el Amigo
MANILA — A Commission on Audit (COA) witness told senators Wednesday that reports submitted by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) were not enough to establish the success of certain activities tied to questioned confidential fund expenditures.
The testimony came during the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, as defense lawyer Kristine Ferrer examined COA witness Xylene Mae del Campo about protective intelligence operations reportedly conducted by the OVP in 2023.
Ferrer presented documents covering the first three quarters of the year and asked Del Campo about activities that included coordination with law enforcement and intelligence personnel, threat evaluations, surveillance, participant profiling and the deployment of informants.
The defense sought to establish that the activities described in the reports constituted legitimate intelligence or surveillance work.
Del Campo agreed that several of the activities could be classified as intelligence gathering, surveillance or confidential operations.
House prosecution counsel Lorna Kapunan objected to the defense’s line of questioning, pointing out that the case involved the use of confidential funds.
Kapunan stressed that the proceedings were not centered on intelligence funds but on whether the OVP’s confidential fund expenditures were properly supported.
Ferrer subsequently asked Del Campo why certain expenses continued to be disallowed despite the OVP’s submission of protective intelligence operations reports and certifications.
The COA witness said the documents failed to sufficiently prove that the information-gathering efforts had achieved the necessary results, particularly where reward payments were concerned.
The defense then explored whether an operation could still be considered successful when surveillance helped prevent an incident from happening.
Kapunan objected to the question as hypothetical, but Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who presided over the proceedings, allowed Ferrer to continue.
Escudero noted that the reports cited by the defense indicated that no untoward incident had taken place.
Del Campo maintained that payments made for information were not the same as reward payments. According to her testimony, the latter required evidence showing that the operation had succeeded.
The exchange between the lawyers eventually grew tense, prompting Escudero to remind both sides to observe proper courtroom conduct.
He noted that both lawyers were members of the Bar and appealed to them not to allow their apparent generational differences to add to the tension.
Kapunan later lightened the atmosphere with a joke, saying she was trying to stop herself from giving Ferrer “a spanking.”
After Escudero called for restraint once more, Kapunan replied: “I promise to henceforth behave.”
Del Campo’s testimony forms part of the House prosecution’s presentation of evidence in the impeachment proceedings concerning allegations of misuse of confidential funds by Duterte.
elamigo/xf
