00:00The Chief of Staff of Vice President Sara Duterte wrote to the Commission on Audit
00:08that the subpoena of the Chamber should not comply with its audit report on the confidential funds of the OVP.
00:17The hearing of the two other acknowledgment receipts submitted by the OVP and the DepEd was also attended by Marisol Abdurrahman.
00:30Vice President Sara Duterte is still no-show in the hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and Accountability
00:36that is investigating how the confidential and intelligence funds of her office were spent.
00:41The one who came to the hearing today was the Chair of the Committee, Atty. Zulaika Lopez, the Chief of Staff of Duterte.
00:48But according to her, she is just the Executive Director of the implementation of the socioeconomic projects of the Vice President
00:54and she has no knowledge about the use, disbursement, and liquidation of confidential funds.
00:59I am purely handling, as I mentioned, operational concerns.
01:06There are areas, for example, that I am not privy to, one of which is the matter of confidential expenses.
01:18Although I would wish to answer really respectfully as regards the matter of the confidential expenses,
01:24it is something that I have not really been privy to from the very beginning.
01:30When the hearing was concluded, Lopez wrote to the Commission on Audit to tell it not to follow the order of the Camera
01:37that submitted its audit report on the confidential funds of the OVP.
01:42She said that Vice President Sara Duterte knows about it.
01:45That letter does not in any way seek to undermine the power of Congress.
01:52It is simply a request to the Commission of Audit, given that there is still an ongoing audit investigation.
02:01That's why we requested that since the audit is not yet completed,
02:06it is not right to give such documents first.
02:13But Attorney Lopez, that is not a call for you to make, right?
02:18Precisely because you are the agency that is being investigated.
02:23You're asking another agency not to cooperate with Congress when an ongoing investigation is happening.
02:33We requested a statement regarding this matter.
02:37After the Committee questioned the acknowledgment receipts signed by Mayor Gris Piatos,
02:42it was noticed that the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education submitted two more acknowledgment receipts.
02:50As proof, the money paid was received in cash.
02:54Both were signed by a co-co-villamin, but the cash was different.
02:58On the left side, with black ink, that's from the OVP.
03:02On the other side, it's from DepEd.
03:05Can you read the name on DepEd?
03:09It's the same, Mr. Chief.
03:10It's the same, right?
03:12Yes, Mr. Chair.
03:13It's very obvious, Mr. Chair, that not only Mayor Gris Piatos,
03:16we also saw that there are acknowledgment receipts, Mr. Chair,
03:24that have the same name, but the date is different,
03:29and their signature is different, Mr. Chair.
03:34Vice President Sara Duterte did not hesitate to say that she was just wasting her time
03:41because she was not asked why she came here.
03:44The Vice President said before that there was no misuse of her confidential fund.
03:49The four OVP officials who were assisted by the Chief of Staff and Bids and Awards Committee Chair Lemuel Ortono,
03:56Specialist Bursing Officer Gina Acosta,
03:59former DepEd Assistant Secretary Sanchez Cherry Fajarda,
04:02and SDO Edward Fajarda were not heard.
04:04All of them are on official travel, so they will not be included in the hearing.
04:09The judges said that these people intend to avoid the hearing of the committee.
04:14Those who do not attend the committee hearings of the Congress can be charged as criminals
04:24because the law stipulates that coming here is mandatory for public officials.
04:33But the committee said that they did not ask the reason why she came here
04:37because she was not under oath.
04:39They also invited the Vice President several times.
04:43For GMA Integrated News, Marisol Abduraman, Nakatuto 24 Horas.
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