High tribunal asked to void VP’s P125-M confidential funds

Jomel R. Paguian

A GROUP of lawyers on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to void the transfer of P125 million in confidential funds to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) last year for being illegal.

In a 49-page petition, the plaintiffs also asked the tribunal to order the return of the funds to the National Treasury.

The Office of the President, from which the budget came, does not have the power to transfer its contingency fund to the Vice President because only Congress can do so, they said.

“Clearly, the transfer from the contingency fund of the Office of the President to an inexistent ‘confidential fund’ is invalid, much not having a valid purpose for the said unlawful transfer,” according to a copy of the petition.

The plaintiffs said the OVP spent the P125 million in 11 days, “much to the prejudice and burden of the Filipino people.”

“We welcome the discussion on the legality of the fund transfer,” Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio said in a video message in Filipino. “We hope that the Supreme Court’s wisdom will pave the way for an end to this issue.”

The Budget department released P221.42 million to the office in December, P155 million of which was disbursed and P66.42 million remained as unobligated allotments, the plaintiffs said.

Named respondents aside from Ms. Duterte-Carpio were Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin and Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman.

“That purely legislative act cannot be delegated to the Executive department,” Ray Paolo J. Santiago, lead counsel and one of the plaintiffs, told a news briefing. “The only thing the Executive department can do is to follow the instructions of the law.”

Also included as plaintiffs were constitutional expert and former Election chief Christian S. Monsod, former Finance Undersecretary Maria Cielo D. Magno and lawyer Ibarra M. Gutierrez III.

The petitioners said the 2022 General Appropriations Act neither gave the Vice President an item nor an allotment for confidential funds.

They noted that confidential and intelligence expenses require not only strong internal controls in their release and use, but also strict accounting and auditing rules to prevent misuse.

In contrast, the Vice President’s request for confidential funds was for various projects and activities under the office’s good governance program, aside from official engagements and functional representation in international and domestic events

“The fund transferred from the contingency fund of the Office of the President were made to the inexistent confidential fund of respondent Office of the Vice President despite there being existing specific budget items to cover the very stated purposes,” according to the petition.

Mr. Gutierrez said failure to follow the law might result in further abuse and corruption. “When funds are labeled as confidential, they bypass the transparency that should be a character of all public funds,” he told the same briefing.

Philippine congressmen last month stripped several agencies including the Office of the Vice President of their confidential funds, transferring P1.23 billion worth of these funds to security agencies amid worsening tensions with China.

Ms. Carpio had sought P500 million in confidential funds for her office and another P150 million for the Education department, which she also heads.