đź“·Vice President Sara Duterte
The Office of the Vice President has spent as much as P250,000 per day to rent a safe house in 2022, acknowledgment receipts provided by the OVP to the Commission on Audit (COA) revealed on Thursday, October 17.
This comes as House lawmakers continued to examine the undisclosed expenses of Vice President Sara Duterte’s office, where they were puzzled about the rental costs of safe houses OVP used.
In the Congressional hearing, lawmakers saw one receipt indicating that the OVP spent P1 million over a four-night stay beginning December 28, 2022, to cover the rental of a safe house.
“Didn’t you wonder why it was so expensive, P1 million in just four days? What kind of safe house is this? Does this safe house have a swimming pool, does it have WiFi in BGC?” House good government committee chairman Joel Chua asked COA.
Additional receipts showed that the OVP spent P8.75 million on other safe house rentals for three days starting December 27, 2022.
Safe houses were rented for 11 days in 2022 as part of the OVP’s P125 million in confidential expenses, all of which were used by the end of the year. State auditors disallowed P73 million of that amount.
Lawyer Gloria Camora from COA’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office confirmed that the OVP made a P16 million payment, as evidenced by 34 acknowledgment receipts it submitted for the period from December 21 to 31.
Antipolo Representative Romeo Acop, a retired police officer, noted that one of the receipts documented a P500,000 payment for a safe house. Camora said it would amount to P45,454.55 per day.
“Is that regular, the same amount but different number of days?” Manila 1st District Representative Ernesto Dionisio Jr. asked COA.
“That’s slightly steep, especially in 2022 since the fund was exhausted in 11 days,” Camora answered.
Camora also confirmed that the agency allocated P16 million for safe house rentals in the first three quarters of 2023.
However, the number of days for how the OVP used the same P16 million per quarter varied: 11 days for the last quarter of 2022, 53 days for the first quarter of 2023, 67 days for the second quarter of 2023, and 79 days for the third quarter of 2023.
The P125 million confidential fund of the OVP was not provided under the 2022 national budget but was released by the Department of Budget and Management from President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s contingent fund.
When asked whether the P16 million expenditure on safe houses is justified, the OVP only referred to its position paper regarding the ongoing House inquiry, which asserted that the investigation is not intended to aid legislation.
In the position paper, they stated that the hearing was “unnecessary” as it “lacks a clear legislative objective or any contemplated legislation that could result from the deliberations.”
No representatives from the Office of the Vice President attended Thursday’s hearing, despite an invitation from the good government committee.
The congressional inquiry assesses whether Vice President Sara Duterte misused public funds in the OVP and the Department of Education, where she served as agency secretary.
The Vice President has requested that the House halt the hearing, claiming lawmakers are engaging in political persecution. (TCSP)
