Manila: The issue about the Office of the Vice President's (OVP) confidential funds is the alleged misuse of public funds and not the use of aliases of Filipino heroes during the Spanish colonial period, the spokespersons of the House prosecution team said Thursday.
According to Philippines News Agency, the statement came after Senator-judge Robin Padilla attempted to provide the prosecution panel with a history lesson during Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment trial on Wednesday. Padilla highlighted that even Filipino revolutionaries used aliases to conceal their identities.
Prosecution spokesman Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong remarked that the national heroes whose aliases were mentioned would likely be dismayed by their use in the context of alleged misuse of confidential funds. He emphasized that the issue is not about patriotism but rather an audit concern involving the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, during Vice President Duterte's tenure as secretary, which now faces scrutiny from the Commission on Audit (COA).
Adiong further clarified that the genuine identities in the acknowledgment receipts supporting the disbursements can be verified by state auditors without public disclosure. He stressed, "This is an auditing problem. No amount of confidential activity can ever weaken the constitutional mandate of the Commission on Audit (COA) in finding out what happened to the money of the people."
Deputy Speaker Paolo Ortega V highlighted that heroes used aliases to further their struggle for the country, not to mislead people or misuse public funds. He asserted that the use of aliases by heroes was in the context of fighting for the nation.
Deputy Speaker Janette Garin added that while aliases might be needed to protect real informants and those involved in sensitive operations, using fake names does not make the operation's purpose, result, and audit trail vanish. The impeachment trial has scrutinized acknowledgment receipts with questionable names like Mary Grace Piattos, Pusa, Pagong, and Ngitngit.
Garin posed the question, "The question is: where was it used? If the output and program are aliases, it only means one thing: the expenditure for the confidential fund is a ghost."
