Special disbursing officer Gina Acosta was called out by a prosecutor and a senator for allegedly giving “canned” or “templated” answers to questions on how she ascertained the proper use of half a billion pesos in confidential funds of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Testifying in Duterte’s impeachment trial, Acosta repeatedly said that she based her report on the Office of the Vice President’s confidential fund use on the reports and receipts submitted to her by Col. Raymund Lachica, the former head of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG), who carried out the confidential activities.
She gave the same answer when she was pressed for more specific details about how she checked the use of the funds, for which she admitted being accountable.
Private prosecutor Amando Ligutan pointed out that Acosta said she did not personally see Lachica give the money to recipients, that aside from Lachica’s account, she could not verify that the funds went to the recipients.
Acosta said she verified the fund use with Lachica, relying on him because he implemented the confidential activities.
Ligutan manifested that it was a “canned answer.”
“Manifestation, another canned answer to a separate question,” he said.
The manifestation stayed on the record despite an objection from the defense.
Sen. Vicente Sotto III also called Acosta’s answer a “template” when he asked her about the use of the funds in December 2022 for operations in 132 areas nationwide conducted in 11 days.
Sotto specifically asked Acosta if she was allowed to delegate to others her power to disburse the funds.
She only said she disbursed the funds to the Office of the Vice President’s security officer.
Sotto asked to whom she delegated her powers when the confidential funds were distributed in the 132 areas.
She replied that Duterte designated a security officer to implement confidential operations on the ground.
When Sotto asked if Lachica could carry out the operations in 132 areas in 11 days, she said she could not say and repeated that what she knew was that Lachica was designated as the security officer of the OVP and was the chief of the VPSPG.
Sotto ended his questions, saying “Ayoko na marinig yung template.”