The testimony of former Office of the Vice President (OVP) special disbursing officer (SDO) Gina Acosta has exposed what the House prosecution team described as a “modus operandi” in the handling and use of Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds.
House trial spokesperson Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said Acosta’s testimony showed that Duterte was “calling the shots” when she ordered the SDO to turn over PHP125 million in cash to then chief of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group, Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, who had no authority to disburse the funds.
“Ang talagang nagko-call ng shots at nag-o-order sa itong dalawang individual, si Ms. Gina Acosta being the SDO at si Col. Lachica, bilang siya ‘yung nag-implement nitong confidential funds, ay ang Vice President (The one really calling the shots and giving orders to Acosta, being the SDO, and Lachica, being the implementer of the confidential funds is the Vice President),” Alonto Adiong said at a press briefing at the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Acosta testified as a hostile witness before the Senate impeachment court that she withdrew the PHP125 million as the OVP’s designated SDO, and turned over the entire amount to Lachica upon Duterte’s instruction.
She also acknowledged that she would not have given the money to Lachica had Duterte not ordered her to do so.
Alonto Adiong said the testimony showed Duterte was “the one that is actually pulling the strings,” while Acosta effectively surrendered her authority as SDO to Lachica instead of personally disbursing the funds.
He said the arrangement amounted to an illegal delegation of duty because the joint circular governing confidential and intelligence funds did not authorize a security officer to assume the SDO’s functions.
Alonto Adiong noted that Acosta did not transfer the responsibility on her own initiative but acted upon Duterte’s instruction.
House prosecutor, Manila Rep. Joel Chua, said Acosta’s testimony showed that her role had effectively been reduced to withdrawing the money and turning it over to Lachica.
“Lumalabas kahapon, ang naging trabaho lamang ni Ms. Gina Acosta ay merely ministerial, o parang ang nangyari sa kanya, tagapirma lang dahil hindi niya naiintindihan kung ano ang nasa plano at taga-withdraw lang (It appeared yesterday that Acosta’s job was merely ministerial, or just a mere signer, because she did not understand what was in the plan and just withdrew the money),” Chua said.
He noted that Acosta also admitted having no knowledge of intelligence gathering despite being designated as the official responsible for disbursing the OVP’s confidential funds.
This, he said, raised questions over why Acosta was appointed SDO in the first place and reinforced the prosecution’s position that instructions ultimately came from Duterte as head of the agency.
The prosecution team also questioned Lachica’s multiple roles in the process.
Alonto Adiong said testimony showed that Lachica provided inputs for the physical and financial plan that served as the basis for confidential fund activities, received the money from Acosta, and subsequently supplied documents concerning its use.
He likened the arrangement to allowing the same person to identify what would be funded, handle the money, and account for how it was spent.
“Nagmumukhang modus operandi po ito, ang mga ganitong klaseng kalakaran (This kind of arrangement looks like a modus operandi),” he said, adding that concentrating these functions in one person removed safeguards intended to protect public money and opened the process to misuse and abuse.
House prosecution legal spokesperson and counsel Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr. said Acosta’s testimony was particularly significant because it clarified the “chain of control” over the confidential funds.
Tolosa said the money ended up with Lachica, despite him not being the SDO, precisely because Duterte instructed Acosta to turn it over.
“Nakita po natin doon na lumilinaw ‘yung chain of control dito sa usapin pong confidential funds na lumalabas na base sa mga dokumento at sa mga testigo, kung ano ‘yung naging papel ng Bise Presidente dito (The chain of control over the confidential funds is getting clearer, now that it was shown, based on documents and the witnesses, what is the role of the Vice President),” Tolosa said.
The House impeachment team, however, stopped short of declaring that the evidence presented so far was sufficient to convict Duterte.
Tolosa said that determination belongs exclusively to the Senate impeachment court, while the prosecution intends to complete the confidential fund trail before resting its presentation under Article 1.
The article covers Duterte’s alleged misuse of PHP612.5 million in confidential funds: consisting of PHP500 million released to the OVP from December 2022 to September 2023; and PHP112.5 million released to the Department of Education while Duterte was education secretary in 2023. (PNA)