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During a House hearing, the Sara Duterte-led Department of Education is questioned over use of AFP documents and events to justify confidential expenses not funded by DepEd
MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education under the leadership of Vice President Sara Duterte submitted documents it had secured from the Armed Forces of the Philippines to justify the P15 million in confidential expenses for AFP-led youth leadership summits (YLS), even though DepEd did not spend a single centavo on those events.
The P15 million in expenditures — which were supposedly used to pay informants — were initially flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) in February for insufficient documents.
To satisfy the documentary deficiencies, then-DepEd undersecretary Nolasco Mempin, following instructions from Duterte’s office via former chief of staff Michael Poa, requested certifications from four infantry divisions of the Philippine Army.
All four army officials who were signatories in the certifications, however, confirmed not receiving any funds from DepEd to mount the youth leadership summits, and also confirmed being unaware that the documents would be used to justify the agency’s confidential expenses.
Poa said he had indeed asked Mempin to obtain certifications from the Philippine Army, but claimed he was under the impression that the information provided by DepEd helped the infantry divisions.
“What I asked for is for any accomplishment, not specifically on YLS. Based on the audit observation memorandum (AOM) we received, if you hand rewards, you need evidence of success of the information you received through the giving out of rewards. Because of this, I coordinated with Undersecretary Mempin, to provide any proof of accomplishment for the rewards disbursed from confidential funds,” Poa told the House committee on good government.
“There are anti-insurgency campaigns, that’s what I saw in the accomplishment report. So that’s why I approached Undersecretary Mempin and said, ‘Do we have any report or certification showing that because of the information DepEd was probably able to give to the AFP, they were able to target those susceptible to insurgency and prevent them from being recruited?’ And in this case, what they provided were seminars, and that is why that’s what I submitted as a response to the AOM,” he added.
Lawmakers, however, were puzzled by what DepEd did.
“It all boils down to the fact that you are using a certification of an activity of a different agency which never spent any single peso coming from your office to justify your expense,” Bukidnon 2nd District Representative Jonathan Keith Flores said.
“To this point, we’re not even sure whether that money was paid as reward to informers,” Luistro added.
Thursday’s hearing was the third day that the House good government committee convened to investigate Duterte’s alleged misuse of public funds.
Duterte only attended the briefing once, to formally ask the panel to put an end to the investigation, and to accuse lawmakers to their face of political persecution.
The Vice President has constantly denied misusing public funds. – Rappler.com
