Special disbursing officer Gina Acosta said she had no personal knowledge of how half a billion pesos in Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds were used, and had relied on the reports and receipts from security chief Col. Raymund Lachica, who told her the funds were spent for “sensitive and confidential operations.”
Acosta, who acknowledged that she was the accountable officer for the funds, also said she gave the P500 million in confidential funds to Lachica even if he was not a bonded official, meaning he is not insured by a fidelity bond that acts as insurance against potential losses,
During the continuation of Duterte’s impeachment trial, Acosta said she had no personal knowledge of the recipients of the funds because she was not involved in the operations.
It was Lachica who was the expert in the security operations, she said.
Private prosecutor Amando Ligutan questioned the process, saying that this left the public with no way of checking whether the paper trial for the funds matched the actual money trail.
Acosta disagreed, saying they can ask the security officer how the money was used.
But Ligutan continued to raised doubts about the practice.
“Hindi ba ito isang scam o tahasang panlilinlang sa pera ng taongbayan?” he asked.
His use of the word “scam” was stricken from the record because it did not come from the witness.
During direct examination, Ligutan asked Acosta several times about the details of the confidential fund use.
These included the rent for safehouses of P1.4 million a day, payments for medicines without official receipts, and payment of rewards for several individuals with names such as Antonio Pagong, Timon Andrew Pusa, and Xuniso Belat.
Acosta said her liquidation and accomplishment reports, indicating that P500 million in confidential funds were properly spent, were based on representations and acknowledgement receipts from Lachica.
She said there were no official receipts for the fund uses.
She also said she verified some of the acknowledgement receipts containing names of fund beneficiaries from Lachica, as some of these did not have dates or names.
“Ang sagot ni SO [security officer], ‘Ma’am Gina, kung ano man ang binigay ko sa iyo na documento, ‘yun na yun, kasi ang mga transaction o ang operation is very sensitive information po, Ma’am Gina. At saka confidential po ito kaya kung ano ang binigay ko sayo na mga acknowledgement receipts, yun po yun,’” she said.