By Benjamin Cuaresma
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte was identified in testimony before the Senate impeachment court Monday as the official who ordered the release of P125 million in confidential funds from the Office of the Vice-President (OVP) in 2022.
Gina F. Acosta, an OVP special disbursing officer from 2022 to 2023, testified that she was instructed to release the money to Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, then the OVP’s designated security officer, after she encashed the check.
Acosta said the directive came from “above” and was given to her before she turned over the cash to Lachica.
“There was an instruction from above, your honor — that once I encash the cheque, I should release it to Sir Lachica, the designated security officer at the Office of the Vice-President,” Acosta told the court.
The testimony became a key point in the prosecution’s effort to establish Duterte’s direct involvement in the handling of confidential funds.
House prosecution lawyer Amando Virgil D. Ligutan pressed Acosta on whether Lachica had authority under Joint Circular 2015-01 to disburse confidential funds.
Acosta said she understood that she was the designated disbursing officer and therefore responsible for releasing the funds, while the security officer was tasked with implementing confidential activities.
Ligutan then asked whether she still handed the P125 million to Lachica despite the rules because it was Duterte’s instruction.
Acosta answered yes.
Senate impeachment court Presiding Officer Francis Joseph “Chiz” G. Escudero sought to clarify Lachica’s role in the transaction.
Acosta said Lachica was not the actual recipient of the money. Rather, he was the security officer designated to handle the implementation of the confidential activities after the funds were withdrawn.
The distinction became significant as the prosecution questioned the authority used to move the P125 million from the OVP’s custody into the hands of its security officer.
The first impeachment article against Duterte alleges the misuse of P612.5 million in confidential funds.
Ligutan also confronted Acosta with the OVP Physical and Financial Plan dated Dec. 13, 2022, which earmarked P125 million under a broad heading called “Good Governance Program.”
The prosecution questioned why the document did not identify the specific confidential activities that would consume the allocation.
Ligutan pointed out that the plan did not provide details on surveillance operations, targets, quantities or costs.
Earlier testimony from Commission on Audit officials Roderick C. Wamil and Xylene Mae L. del Campo indicated that confidential-fund activities must be sufficiently identified under government auditing rules.
The prosecution argued that the broad designation potentially allowed the OVP to account for activities later through liquidation reports without the original plan specifying the details of those operations.
Acosta further testified that Lachica’s report on the use of the funds became the basis for the OVP’s liquidation report.
Escudero asked whether the OVP accepted Lachica’s report because he was the person who would know what confidential activities had actually been carried out.
Acosta again answered yes.
The impeachment court had earlier declared Acosta a hostile witness after the prosecution presented her as an incumbent OVP employee.
Her testimony was presented as the prosecution sought to connect Duterte directly to the movement and eventual accounting of confidential funds.
But the hearing also exposed a potentially conflicting position in Acosta’s earlier statements.
Escudero noted that Acosta had submitted a counter-affidavit stating that Duterte did not misappropriate confidential funds.
That earlier position stands in contrast to the prosecution’s allegations in the first impeachment article.
For the prosecution, however, Acosta’s latest testimony placed a crucial question before the impeachment court: who ordered the release of the P125 million, who was authorized to disburse it, and how was the money ultimately accounted for?
ia/xf
