Former Bayan Muna congressman and human rights lawyer Neri Colmenares, a lead petitioner in the Supreme Court case against the Office of the Vice President’s confidential funds, strongly disputed Vice President Sara Duterte’s claim that the use of aliases or codenames in signing government vouchers is allowed under Philippine law.
“No, it is not legal to use fake names as alleged recipients of public funds. The COA-DBM Joint Circular 2015-1 on Confidential Funds require proof of payment for disbursement of confidential funds. Under the law, a government employee must submit proof of payment and attest to the proper spending of public funds before the Intelligence and Confidential Fund Accounting Unit (ICFAU) upon authorization by the COA Chairman. Even confidential funds are subject to audit,” Colmenares asserted.
Colmenares warned that accepting Duterte’s justification would set a dangerous precedent for government accountability. “If this is allowed as a defense, then billions of pesos in confidential funds could very well be stolen and the identity of the perpetrators would remain unknown,” he said.
“Ang paggamit ng alias o fake name sa mga opisyal na dokumento ng gobyerno ay malinaw na ilegal. Hindi ito tinatanggap ng batas dahil dito nagsisimula ang korapsyon at pagtatago ng katotohanan mula sa taumbayan,” Colmenares added.
“This was done in the Napoles Php 10 B scam where fake names and names from the phone directory were used as supposed beneficiaries of billions of pesos when in fact they did not receive a single centavo of ayuda”.
In December 2023, Colmenares, along with representatives from the Makabayan bloc, filed a 34-page petition before the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the P125 million in confidential funds received by Vice President Duterte’s office in 2022. The petition seeks to declare the release and use of the funds “unconstitutional and void,” and calls for the Commission on Audit (COA) to fully audit the funds and order their return to the government. Art. 218 and 219 of the Revised Penal Code punishes with Prision Correccional any public official who refuses or fails to render an accounting of public funds in her custody “
Colmenares emphasized: “Public officials must be held to the highest standards of transparency. Using fake names in financial documents is not only illegal, it is a gross insult to the Filipino people who demand accountability for every centavo of public money.”
“Nananawagan kami sa sambayanang Pilipino: Ipaglaban natin ang karapatan ng mamamayan na malaman kung saan napupunta ang pondo ng bayan. Hindi dapat tinatanggap ang palusot na ‘confidential’ kung may tinatago o nilalabag na batas,” he concluded. “Kahit sinong binigyan ng pondo ng tao, ay kailangan mag accounting nito.” #
