by Diego Morra
Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has slapped plunder, malversation and graft charges against Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio before the Office of the Ombudsman for the misuse of billions of pesos worth of confidential and intelligence funds, as well as other types of public money from the time she was a vice mayor and mayor of Davao City and later as vice president and secretary of education.
The allegations include: Plunder and malversation of at least P650-million in confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department odf Education (DepEd); plunder and malversation of P2.7 billion of Davao City’s confidential funds during her term as mayor; graft and malversation of P8 billion worth of overpriced laptops during her term as DepEd secretary; graft and gross incompetence over Notice of Disallowance (ND) issued by the Commission on Audit (COA) covering P12-billion of DepEd funds during her term as DepEd secretary; graft due to the P7-billion unliquidated cash advances during her term as DepEd secretary, and; graft and gross incompetence over the construction of 192 out of target 6,000 classrooms.
Other allegations cover: Accumulation of ill-gotten wealth and non-declaration in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of more than P2 billion of deposits and other assets; bribery and corruption due to receiving money from a drug lord several times during her term as Davao City mayor, and; being unfit to hold public office and betrayal of public trust due to the two incidents of public meltdown while threatening to kill President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.
“The principle of holding the highest officers of the land, including the President and the Vice President, to the highest possible standards is of imperative necessity. It is obvious that Respondent’s actions, and those of her family members, if shown to be true, are clearly incompatible with allowing her to continue holding the Office of the Vice President of the Republic,” the complaint read. Speaking of the filing, Trillanes said “this is about accountability,” arguing that Sara’s feet should be held to the fire, particularly after she repeatedly refused to explain how her office spent P112.5 million in confidential funds in the 11 dying days of 2022. Sara was not entitled to confidential or intelligence funds (CIF) at that time since she was using the budget left under her care by former Vice President Leni Robredo, which was given zero CIF budget for six years.
“Instead of taking the opportunity to explain how she handled the confidential funds entrusted to her Office, Respondent practically stonewalled all the relevant questions Members of the House of Representatives asked on how her Office spent the hundreds of millions of public funds entrusted to her. Worse, when some Members of the House of Representatives attempted to get the Respondent to answer questions relevant to the OVP’s budget and how it spent the hundreds of millions of public funds entrusted to her, Respondent resorted to reading template evasive responses, making snide remarks and resorting to ad hominem personal attacks, off-tangent jokes and generally displayed a provocative, combative and condescending demeanor towards the Members of the House of Representatives,” the complaint narrated.
“The arrogant, pompous and over-bearing demeanor displayed by the Respondent and her deliberate and calculated outright refusal to answer simple questions on how her Office spent public funds clearly runs counter to the system of checks and balances written into our fundamental law, with the Congress being entrusted the power to enact laws and appropriate public funds and exercise oversight functions, the Executive being given the power to execute and implement our laws, and the Judiciary being granted the power to interpret our laws and settle justiciable controversies,” the complaint added.
Trillanes said the filing of the criminal complaint is absolutely necessary given the disinformation network bankrolled by her and her local cohorts and foreign financiers has been churning out tons of lies and fabricated artificial intelligence (AI) posts that give Sara a tongue bath, papering over her genuine artificial intelligence, the one responsible for her failure to answer basic questions on her budget, her take on the economy and her frequent absences as DepEd secretary while she crisscrosses the country in aid of her election as president in 2028. Her popularity is based on theory of Goebbels, that a lie repeated a billion times becomes the truth. Salt never has to brag about its saltiness. In the case of Sara, bragging has to be done 24/7 since she is vacuous. Talagang maingay ang latang walang laman.
“Ang primary reason kung bakit popular pa rin siya ay dahil hindi kilalang lubusan ng mga Pilipino ‘yung tunay na pagkatao ni Sara Duterte. Dahil talagang binabaha nila ng fake news at mga trolls nila ‘yung social media na naging pangunahing source ng information ng mga kababayan natin,” Trillanes “At ito nga, isang paraan ito na para ma-expose ‘yung iba’t-ibang insidente ng pangungurakot at iba pang anomalya na ginawa ni [Vice President] Sara at hopefully mamulat sila. At kahit relatively more popular siya, but compared noong unang [mga taon niya bilang Bise Presidente] na walang mga ganitong lumabas na anomalya, bumaba na rin ang kanyang mga numero,” he concluded.
