Whether P612.5 million in secret government money was properly accounted for becomes the central question when Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial picks back up, with House prosecutors calling audit officials to the stand for the eleventh day of proceedings.
Prosecutor and Manila Rep. Joel Chua drew a parallel between the case and one of the largest corruption scandals of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo years — the fertilizer fund controversy — arguing that both hinge on a single test: did taxpayer money actually serve its stated purpose?
“If you remember the fertilizer scam, there was funding. The government’s fertilizer program was a good program. There really was a need for a program for our crops. But when funds are released and no one can determine where they were used, it’s like ghost fertilizer,” Chua told the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.
Two Commission on Audit officials and a custodian of House records are set to walk lawmakers through how the confidential allocations were liquidated. The money — released to the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education across 2022 and 2023 — was already traced in the trial’s opening phase, when prosecutors documented its path out of the National Treasury and into cash withdrawals.
That earlier groundwork began last Wednesday. Two former Land Bank of the Philippines branch managers told the court that Treasury checks worth P612.5 million came from the National Treasury and were pulled out as cash by special disbursing officers cleared to handle the funds for both agencies.
Chua signaled the prosecution has no interest in a drawn-out schedule. Roughly 13 witnesses have been prepared for Article I, but he indicated the panel is willing to rest before running through the full roster if the documents and testimony already presented settle the matter — a decision he said would not undercut the strength of the case.
“Once we believe the evidence is already strong enough, and additional evidence would only further strengthen it, we do not want a long process or hearing,” he said.
