By Benjamin Cuaresma
MANILA — Former Department of Education (DepEd) Undersecretary Michael Wesley Poa should not be held liable simply for preparing the agency’s response to state auditors, a House prosecutor said Thursday, stressing that the impeachment proceedings are focused on Vice President Sara Duterte and her accountability for the confidential funds under her control.
Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon, a member of the House prosecution team, said Poa is only a witness in the impeachment case and is not the official being placed on trial.
“Well, I think to be clear, the one on trial here is not Mr. Poa. He is just a witness. The one on trial here is the VP,” Ridon said during a press briefing.
Poa previously testified that he prepared DepEd’s response to a Commission on Audit (COA) Audit Observation Memorandum using information relayed by officials involved in the agency’s confidential-fund operations.
Ridon said Poa should not necessarily face consequences for submitting the response if the information provided to him represented the best available basis for answering the auditors’ observations.
“So tingin ko naman po (I think), if those were the pieces of information relayed to him and that was the best manner by which he could have responded to that AOM, e di tingin ko hindi naman siya dapat ma-place (I think he should not be placed) in peril because of that,” Ridon said.
He drew a distinction, however, between Poa’s role in responding to the COA memorandum and the officials who could potentially be investigated for criminal liability over the use of confidential funds.
Ridon said any future malversation case involving DepEd or Office of the Vice President (OVP) funds would be separate from the impeachment proceedings and would require its own investigation and judicial process.
“And again, to be clear, in a future malversation case which is not sub judice, whether on DepEd or on the OVP funds, I think it’s very clear who the personalities that will be involved in that (case),” he said.
Ridon pointed to officials identified in COA proceedings involving questioned OVP confidential-fund transactions, including Duterte as head of agency, former Special Disbursing Officer Gina Acosta, former security officer Col. Raymund Dante Lachica and Chief Accountant Julieta Villadelrey.
“It is not the person that submitted the AOM, responded to the AOM; it is most definitely the personalities that have been named in the proceedings, and also in the COA Notices of Disallowance. Apat na tao po yun (There are four people), the head of agency, the SDO, Mr. Lachica, and the Chief Accountant,” Ridon said.
Ridon has previously called on the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate possible malversation arising from the questioned confidential-fund transactions.
Any criminal liability, however, would have to be established through a separate investigation and proceeding and would not be determined by the impeachment trial itself.
Poa’s testimony remains part of the evidence being considered in the impeachment proceedings, while the constitutional accountability of the Vice President remains the central issue before the impeachment court.
ia/XF
