Confidential funds bankrolled tree-planting under OVP ‘good governance’ label, ex-disbursing officer testifies
Almost any undertaking could draw on the Office of the Vice President’s confidential funds provided it fell under the banner of “good governance programs,” a former agency official told the Senate on Monday, Aug. 17.
Gina Acosta, who served as special disbursing officer (SDO) for the OVP and now holds the post of vice presidential staff officer VI, gave that account while testifying as a hostile prosecution witness in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. Private prosecutor Amando Virgil Ligutan led her through direct examination.
Pressed by presiding officer Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero on whether she signed off on everything then-Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) chief Col. Raymund Dante Lachica turned in for liquidation — tree-planting drives among them, logged as good governance work — Acosta said yes.
Much of her testimony centered on Lachica’s role. She said he supplied the substantive details behind the funded activities because he was the specialist and the one carrying out the programs on the ground. The plans and submissions, she added, were routed to the Vice President for approval, with Lachica furnishing the inputs and guidance on what the confidential money could cover.
During her stint as SDO, Acosta assembled most of the paperwork the OVP filed with the Commission on Audit (COA) to account for the P500 million in confidential funds released to the office across 2022 and 2023. She acknowledged that one required document — the physical and financial plan (PFP), signed by the agency head to back the funding request — contained no specifics, calling it “generic.”
By her reading, Joint Circular (JC) 2015-01, which governs how confidential and intelligence funds are entitled, released, used, reported, and audited, imposed no obligation to spell out an itemized program list in the PFP. Ligutan countered that the circular carries at least two provisions requiring that “cash advances shall be used for specific legal purpose” and that “agencies shall report the specific detail of the corresponding expenditures.”
Acosta maintained that the missing specifics lived in the attachments forwarded to the COA, materials she traced back to Lachica.
Her appearance supports article I of the articles of impeachment, which accuses Duterte’s offices of misusing P612.5 million in confidential funds between December 2022 and the third quarter of 2023. Last week, COA state auditors Roderick Wamil and Xylene del Campo told the court that Duterte had cleared Lachica to disburse the entire P500 million despite his lacking accountable-officer status under the circular.
