• 3 months ago
Lawmaker cites issues with OVP budget but no impeach move in House

Rider Partylist Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez, a member of the House of Representatives' Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability speaks to the media on Sept. 18, 2024 after its hearing on the alleged misuse of funds by the Office of the Vice President, where he cited issues with the P500 million confidential and intelligence funds that were allocated to the OVP in 2023. He also said that based on his recollection, there were still no moves to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte over the use of confidential funds, and reiterated that the hearing was not a 'fishing expedition' with the aim of easing her out in the 2028 elections.

VIDEO BY RED MENDOZA

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Transcript
00:00Well today, I think it went, you know, with the agenda. We've already had the OVP, we've had the initial deliberations into it.
00:09And then, Saman na rin po, kasi nabagit niya po that we're going to have metal Tokyo.
00:13So at least for the organizational matters, we went through with it.
00:16Initial assessment po siguro, I think justified naman po. The bases were laid out properly.
00:22And nakita man po natin, sa initial deliberations pa lang.
00:25It's unfortunate, of course, that we didn't have the proper research persons from the Office of the Vice President.
00:30However, we were still able to ask the proper questions po with COA.
00:34Although, initial pa lang po ito. Very telling kasi naging indication naman po, no?
00:39We had questions about the CIF, confidential and intelligence funds during the budget hearings po nung OVP, no?
00:48But it seems to have the same issues here.
00:51Most telling, aside from the notice of disallowance, alam na po natin sa P3M.
00:55Na-confirm na po kanina that we have issues with the second batch, yung P500M confidential funds.
01:01So that's something that we're going to look into.
01:03Apparently, out of the P500, if you recall, yung P125 po dun, hindi na-claim for the last quarter.
01:08So we're talking about around P375M na meron rin pa lang audit observation memorandum.
01:13So that's something that's the direction we'd like to take.
01:16Of course, we're all for accountability.
01:18Even if AOM pa lang ito compared to notice of disallowance, by final ruling for the return of the money,
01:25it's still this very telling po that there seems to be a pattern.
01:28Based on yung sinabi ng COA and based on the report we received,
01:31yung AOM po kasi parang kung ano po yung offenses nila dun sa notice of disallowance,
01:35ganun pa rin po yung offenses sa AOM.
01:38So it's something that we really have to consider.
01:40Is there a pattern of misuse or misfeasance or is this malfeasance even?
01:44So I guess yun nga po.
01:45Naging justified verily within the jurisdiction po ito noong Committee on Good Law.

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