📷 Vice President at Education Secretary
CITING deficiency of the cases filed against the Department of Education (DepEd), Vice President Sara Duterte asked the Supreme Court to junk petitions questioning the legality of the controversial P125 million confidential funds.
In a manifestation filed by Atty. Estelito Mendoza in his capacity as legal counsel, Duterte claimed that all cases lacked in essense required under the jurisprudence even as she described the petition as no more than a controversy.
The Vice President also took a swipe at the cases which she aptly referred to as remiss of a legally demandable and enforceable right.
“The petitions are mere apprehension and speculation about contingent funds or confidential funds, which does not constitute a justiciable controversy,” Duterte said in her consolidated comment.
Among those petitions sought for SC dismissal included those filed by lawyers Christian Monsod and Howard Calleja, and ACT Teachers Partylist.
Monsod and ACT Teachers asked the high tribunal to compel the Office of yhe Vice President to eturn the P125 million funds to the national treasury.
The controversial confidential funds were transferred by the Office of the President to the OVP in 2022.
Soon after she assumed the second highest elective post, Duterte insisted the need for OVP satellite offices to bring services closer to the public for which the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) identified the source where the Vice President could draw funds — from the Contingent Funds under the General Appropriations Act.
It was then that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. decided to release funds to the OVP.
The manifestation also expressed doubt whether or not the high tribunal should resolve every question that it may have the authority to answer.
“To conclude, it is important to state that courts do not sit to adjudicate mere academic questions to satisfy scholarly interest therein, however intellectually solid the problem may be,” Duterte said.
“Indeed the mandate of the honorable court not include the duty to answer all of life’s questions.” (ANGEL F. JOSE)
