Barbers: Evidence on confidential funds shifts burden to VP Sara Duterte

MANILA – House prosecution panel spokesperson Robert Ace Barbers stated on Tuesday that initial testimony from State Auditor Roderick Wamil has shifted the burden of evidence to Vice President Sara Duterte regarding the liquidation and disbursement of her PHP612.5 million in confidential funds accrued during her tenure as both Vice President and Department of Education Secretary.

“As I noted following yesterday’s hearing, in my opinion, the burden of evidence has now shifted to the defense team,” Barbers stated.

On Monday, Wamil, formerly assigned to the Commission on Audit’s (COA) Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO), testified that the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) original and revised submissions did not fully establish the identities of recipients, the specific confidential activities undertaken and the supporting proof for several payments.

He said the acknowledgment receipts were among the 845 documents submitted by the OVP to the COA to liquidate its first of four total PHP125 million confidential fund release covering Dec. 21 to 31, 2022.

Wamil confirmed that the receipts presented before the Senate impeachment court were among those submitted by the OVP during the audit.

The prosecution also presented 10 more names listed as recipients of confidential fund disbursements —Renan Piattos, Nova Santos, Mico P. Harina, Janice Marie Revilla, Patty Ting, Andy Lim, Alejandro Pikit, Feonna Biong, Sisfrunio Balsac, and Gabriel Bisaya— in addition to the previously scrutinized “Mary Grace Piattos.”

Those findings became part of the basis for the COA’s Notice of Suspension on the OVP’s liquidation of its first PHP125 million confidential fund release.

“They will have to do a lot of counter-evidence to rebut this,” Barbers said.

Barbers said the defense may have to establish the real persons behind the aliases and explain what intelligence information or service each recipient provided.

“If it will take for them to produce these people, if the impeachment court will allow this, may rules naman na pinag-uusapan dyan, siguro we will have to wait and see kung ano yung kanilang gagawin dyan (there are rules covering that, maybe we will have to wait and see what the defense will do regarding that),” he said, adding that senator-judges will ultimately determine whether the prosecution has established the allegations and whether the defense has sufficiently rebutted its evidence.

Barbers said the unresolved question remained where the public money went and whether it was used for authorized confidential operations.

“The next step is to justify nila kung saan napunta ‘yung pondo. Kaya nga, that’s the reason (for them to justify where the funds went. That’s the reason) why perhaps I can, in my opinion, say the burden of evidence shifted to them,” he said. (PNA)

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