News Roundup 05 October 2024
Nov 05, 2024 • 5 min Read
Senate retains OVP’s proposed P733-M budget | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — The Senate has retained the proposed P733-million budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) approved by the House of Representatives in its 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB), according to Senator Grace Poe.
Poe, who heads the Senate committee on finance, said they made the decision after the OVP failed to submit documents needed to clarify some issues regarding the proposed budget.
“Yes. We reached out several times to the Office of the Vice President requesting them to submit documents to clarify issues regarding their budget, but they have not submitted as of today,” Poe told reporters on Tuesday. “So, we decided to retain the GAB amount pending submission and review of these documents.”
“While we cannot account for movements in the figures on an apples-to-apples basis, we can say that we retained the original budget for the relevant item in DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) while we increased further the item under the DOH (Department of Health) budget,” she added.
Last September 12, the House committee on appropriations recommended reducing the proposed P2.037- billion budget of the OVP to P733.198 million.
Full Story at: Senate retains OVP’s proposed P733-M budget
DepEd exec claims receiving ‘monthly allowance’ from VP Sara Duterte | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — An official of the Department of Education (DepEd) has admitted to receiving envelopes containing P25,000 “monthly allowance” reportedly from Vice President and former DepEd chief Sara Duterte in nine months last year.
DepEd Accounting Division chief Rhunna Catalan made the revelation after she was asked by the House committee on good government and public accountability chair and Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua if she also received envelopes from former DepEd Assistant Secretary Sunshine Charry Fajarda.
“Yes sir,” Catalan answered.
“Minimal lang po (It was minimal only). It’s 25,000,” she added.
Catalan also said she was “made to understand” that the allowance came from Duterte’s personal money.
Lawmakers also grilled her for signing questionable P112.5-million vouchers in confidential and intelligence funds.
She clarified that she was not forced to sign the vouchers, but was “requested” by Fajarda to sign these without knowing the content.
Former OVP and DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa also revealed that he occasionally received envelopes containing cash from Duterte, through Fajarda as well.
Other DepEd officials also admitted to getting the envelopes from Fajarda. These are former DepEd Bids and Awards Committee head Director Resty Osias and Education Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado.
In a previous hearing, Mercado revealed that she was assigned as head of the Procuring Entity (HOPE) of DepEd, signing checks related to funds, which, at one point, amounted to P37.5 million.
Full Story at: DepEd exec claims receiving ‘monthly allowance’ from VP Sara
House panel flags 158 ‘bogus’ OVP receipts linked to confidential funds | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — House lawmakers are questioning the authenticity of at least 158 acknowledgment receipts submitted by the Office of the Vice President to the Commission on Audit to justify its confidential expenses, saying the “red flags” in the documents point to possible forgery.
On Tuesday, November 5, the House good government panel surfaced lawmakers’ concerns about the same typographical error appearing in 158 receipts and the absence of signatures in documents used to liquidate the OVP’s secret funds in 2022 and 2023.
Confidential funds, as the name implies, are secret expenses that can only be audited through government agencies’ submission of documents to the Commission on Audit (COA).
As past hearings by the House good government panel show, the OVP has primarily justified its confidential expenditures to the COA through submissions of acknowledgment receipts. These are supposedly signed by the people who receive the money, but the receipts themselves do not indicate details other than the amount disbursed and the name and signature of the receiver.
Based on his office’s “study” of the OVP’s receipts, Rep. Rodge Gutierrez (1-Rider Partylist) said he found it odd that 158 of these amounting to P23.8 million were incorrectly dated as being received in December 2023 instead of December 2022.
Gloria Camora, the leader of the COA unit that audited the OVP’s confidential funds in 2023, said Vice President Sara Duterte’s office had attributed these date discrepancies to “inadvertent clerical or typographical errors.”
“We would understand if the typographical error happens once or twice, and for a single individual to make this mistake multiple times… [But] for 158 people to make the same mistake? Is that an acceptable margin of error?” Gutierrez said.
He added that the timing of the error coincided suspiciously with the COA’s notice of suspension to the OVP in December 2023, which was when the OVP would have submitted its second batch of receipts to the state auditors.
Gutierrez raised the possibility of person(s) “belatedly preparing” the acknowledgment receipts that should have been created in 2022.
Full Story at: House panel flags 158 ‘bogus’ OVP receipts linked to confidential funds | Philstar.com
P10.49M in DepEd funds for ‘leadership summits’ unaccounted — solon | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — A House lawmaker discovered that P10.49 million of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) P15.54 million confidential funds remained unaccounted for, despite being allocated for “youth leadership summits” and an information education campaign.
At the congressional probe into the alleged misuse of funds by DepEd and the Office of the Vice President (OVP), Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro (Batangas, 2nd District) said on Tuesday, November 5, that certifications provided to state auditors to justify these programs only totaled P4.05 million.
Four certifications to clear DepEd’s P15.54 million disallowance or inappropriate spending of confidential funds still lacked details into which programs the agency’s activities fall under, Luistro argued.
The Philippine Army, which conducted the youth leadership summits, previously said it had no knowledge of DepEd’s confidential expenditures and did not use the agency’s funds for the summits.
Where confidential funds could be spent? Confidential funds are designated for four specific programs: counter-insurgency, school abuse prevention and control, anti-illegal activities operations and anti-extremism efforts.
The Commission on Audit (COA) confirmed to Luistro that youth leadership summits (YLS) and information education campaigns (IECs) are part of the counter-insurgency program, aimed at preventing the recruitment of teachers and students by terrorists and insurgents.
Only under the counter-insurgency program. Given that P15.54 million was reportedly used for YLS and IECs, Luistro questioned why only P4.05 million was certified as funds spent under DepEd’s counter-insurgency program.
Full Story at: P10.49M in DepEd funds for ‘leadership summits’ unaccounted — solon | Philstar.com
