Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio’s legal ploys are crumbling, and the latest scheme that she devised is the talking sworn statement, and sheminet, a talking, thinking affidavit that would be her surrogate at the quad committee hearing at the House of Representatives.
Now, she can no longer strut like a peacock, or an ostrich, as the legal profession is laughing hoarsely about her latest innovation to avoid testifying publicly by creating the myth that a sworn statement would suffice, saying her from placing her hand on the Torah or the Talmud to swear to tell nothing but the truth. Nothing resembling voir dire testimony (not in the sense of a judge questioning a prospective juror) as Sara is an escape artist like Houdini.
Now that the lawmakers are seeing through her tunnel vision and their crosshairs have hit their targets, and all of Sara’s crewmen are slowly sinking, like Zuleika Lopez who was found to have asked the Commission on Audit (COA) to withdraw certain documents from nosy panel members, a clear case of obstruction that earned her a contempt citation. Of course, one pathetic Sara lawyer also refused to take the oath and was promptly banished.
The others have shown how they defied laws of physics by dishing out cash to 26 different places nationwide in one day. This special disbursing officer (SDO), husband to one Sara aide who also distributes cash to DepEd officials, had encashed P37.5 million in one day and distributed the cash from the confidential fund (CF) without using choppers and jets.
Then, there are admissions that, indeed, Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio treats money in a cavalier fashion that officers of Land Bank had had as tough filling large gym bags with cash four times. She must be completely obsessed with money that she wants the scrip to be dumped to individuals with strange names like Kiko Villamin and Mary Grace Piattos, forcing Quezon Rep. Jayjay Suarez that the supposed resource persons from Sara’s den were pulling the legs on incredulous lawmakers. One congressman said it was impossible for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) employees to certify the release of confidential funds (CFs) to several areas across the country daily.
Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez said on Nov. 20, 2024 that DepEd SDOs can visit far-flung areas to release the CFs daily. He noted that on February 21, 2023 — a day after Fajarda encashed a P37.5 million check — the DepEd official made seven disbursements to Malolos in Bulacan, Davao, San Francisco, Agusan Del Sur, Makati City, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental and Davao City. Multiple disbursements were made in the first quarter of 2023, submitted on March 31, and there were no less than 10 dispatches daily. On March 15, 2023, Fajarda supposedly made 26 disbursements in the following locations: Davao Del Sur, Surigao Del Sur, Oriental Mindoro, Laguna, Zamboanga Del Sur, Cebu, Ifugao, Antique, Batanes, Pampanga, Legaspi, Lanao Del Norte, Batangas, Tarlac, Metro Manila, Samar, Davao Del Oro, Agusan Del Norte, Davao Del Sur, Davao Del Oro, Laguna, Cavite, and Surigao del Norte.
Lawmakers also put lawyer Gloria Camora of the COA’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO) to task for admitting that her office just accepts the acknowledgment receipts (ARs) uncritically. The committee also found out that dubious CF disbursements and ARs issues in OVP and DepEd were a dime a dozen. In one case, two different Ars were signed by a single person with different handwriting and signature styles. One lawmaker showed two ARs for CFs, one for OVP and another for DepEd were both received by Kokoy Villamin, who was supposed to be from Ozamis City, Misamis Occidental. His signature on the OVP AR was longer than the one for the DepEd AR.
On November 5, Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop pointed to COA executives that several of the ARs were signed by a certain Mary Grace Piattos — which he said bears a first name similar to a coffee shop, while her last name is a famous potato chip brand. The ARs signed off by Piattos were part of the liquidation reports discussed during the same hearing, referring to the P23.8 million confidential funds covered by 158 receipts. In their haste to prove that CFs were being used according to COA rules, the Sara team has been committing error upon error that cannot be justified by a mountain of lies and Sara’s lily-white sworn statement.
