MANILA (SCMP): Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio (pic) is facing three impeachment complaints over her refusal to account for over US$10 million in “confidential funds” her offices distributed to unknown entities, including those seemingly using aliases derived from popular snack and restaurant brands.
Observers say the scandal reflects broader concerns over the growing use of and lack of oversight on such government expenditures.
The impeachment complaints, lodged this month by civic groups, left-wing activists, priests and lawyers, accuse Duterte-Carpio of refusing to account for the substantial sums handed out by her offices to recipients bearing dubious identities.
State auditors reported last month that, between 2022 and 2023, the Office of the Vice-President (OVP) and the Department of Education, which Duterte-Carpio led until resigning from the role in June, spent 612.5 million Philippine pesos (US$10.5 million) in confidential funds.
Both offices issued substantial checks to hundreds of people, later producing as proof acknowledgement receipts (ARs) signed by individuals using names that appear to be related to famous snacks and restaurant chains.
Congressional investigators highlighted how some signatories’ purported monikers appeared to be cobbled together from these brand names. One that transfixed the public – “Mary Grace (a popular cafe) Piattos (a potato crisp brand)” – was given 70,000 pesos for medicines in December 2022. Several others, such as “Chippy (corn chips) McDonald” and “Carlos Miguel Oishi (the surname, a famous snack brand),” also raised eyebrows.
The Philippine Statistics Authority told investigating congressmen it found zero records supporting the existence of a person named Mary Grace Piattos, adding that out of the 677 ARs provided, 405 of the signatories had no proof of existence or birth certificates.
In a Dec 9 committee hearing, congressman Zia Alonto Adiong pointed to other anomalies, including identical signatures appearing in documents supposedly issued in separate cities and the individuals whose signatures varied across documents.
Duterte-Carpio has refused to furnish details on how the funds were used and who received them.
“I will not give an explanation because it will entail that I explain intelligence operations, which will compromise offices who do intelligence operations” she told the media on Dec 11.
The impeachment complaint from the left-wing Makabayan political coalition, filed on Dec 4, noted that “when confronted with legitimate questions about her use of these funds, [the vice-president] responded not with the transparency her oath demands, but with threats and intimidation – labelling critics as ‘reds,’ ‘terrorists,’ and ‘conspirators’”.
Observers say the growing scandal reflects concerns about the increasing use of confidential funds (CF) by government officials. Meant to pay for covert intelligence and surveillance operations, these funds are not governed by standard budgetary rules on procurement and audit.
Barry Gutierrez, a law professor and former congressman, told This Week in Asia that CF are meant for “certain activities related to law enforcement and intelligence gathering”, including the “maintenance of safe houses, the payments to confidential informants, and the like”.
“The OVP is neither a law enforcement nor an intelligence gathering agency, so it is highly unusual that it should receive a special fund legally and specifically intended to support those activities,” said Gutierrez, who was the spokesman for former vice-president Leni Robredo.
He said the only constitutional role assigned to a vice-president is to be the “spare tyre” – a president-in-waiting in case something happens to the chief executive.
Duterte-Carpio and her offices have to date not provided the public with any proof that the funds were used for intelligence operations.
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Jean Encinas-Franco, a political analyst from the University of the Philippines Diliman, said the alleged abuse of CF “is just another day in Philippine politics”.
She claimed that officials in other agencies employ more refined tactics to avoid detection and “evade the eye of the powers that be.”
“This is going to be the case for as long as there are confidential funds in government units that do not have security functions,” she added.
Gutierrez said, “From the explanations given by VP Sara on how and where the CF went – satellite offices, for instance – it would seem that they did not use the fund for the specific legal purpose for which it was intended, but rather as a general fund that was not subject to regular rules on procurement and audit.”
In a statement released in September, the OVP responded to congressmen’s charges it had spent millions to build redundant satellite offices by saying the offices had extended relief and medical assistance to two million people nationwide.
Asked if it was normal for a vice-president to receive CF, Gutierrez said, “I can only speak as regards VP Leni’s experience. She neither asked for nor received any confidential funds during her tenure”.
The allotment of CF to government agencies is at the discretion of the president. When Duterte-Carpio’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, was in office, he was known to not be on good terms with Robredo, who served as his vice-president. Gutierrez said she received “not a single centavo” in confidential funds.
Although the president and vice-president are elected separately in the Philippines, Duterte-Carpio and President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr campaigned together as the “Uniteam” ticket during the 2022 campaign after she reluctantly agreed to step down from running for the presidency herself.
Asked if there might have been a pre-election deal made about CF, Gutierrez said: “I don’t necessarily think she was ‘promised’ this specifically, but clearly her then alliance with her Uniteam partners smoothed the way for granting her requests for CF in 2022 and 2023.”
After the duo both won their elections, their alliance splintered, with Duterte-Carpio resigning from her positions in Marcos Jr’s cabinet in June.
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During a shocking late night virtual press briefing on November 23, the vice-president stated that she had arranged for someone to assassinate Marcos Jnr, his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she were killed. She later claimed that her remarks were not intended as a threat but were meant to underscore the serious threats to her own life.
Fermin Adriano, former agriculture undersecretary, told This Week in Asia the furore “has diverted public attention away from issues of greater national importance – rising food prices, the scandalous manner by which rice supply was handled, the still ravaging African swine fever, massive corruption in the government”.
According to Franco, “By focusing on the popular Vice-President, the administration evades the public eye when in fact it has a bigger budget and much more responsibility compared to the VP’s office. However, the latest survey indicates that both of them suffered in terms of trust ratings. So, I am not sure how this drama will evolve.”
None of the three impeachment complaints have yet to be processed by the Secretary General of the House, Reginald Velasco, whose constitutionally-mandated job is to have the lower chamber’s legal department evaluate whether a complaint is complete in form and substance.
Velasco, however, has publicly promised to finish the evaluation during the holiday break and send all three to House Speaker Martin Romualdez by January 13 when Congress resumes sessions.
The left-leaning Makabayan bloc of congressmen said they hoped to gather 104 signatures – or one-third of the House membership – to endorse the complaints. Under the 1987 Constitution, Duterte-Carpio would then be considered “impeached” by the House and the complaints would form the Articles of Impeachment, which would immediately be transmitted to the Senate without any voting.
Duterte-Carpio, told the media on Dec 9 that she welcomed the impeachment complaints because “I can finally answer what they are accusing me of.” - South China Morning Post
