Several lawmakers sought to douse premature speculation that the Commission on Audit (COA) findings regarding Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) would lead to impeachment proceedings.
This came after the House Committee on Appropriations recently approved a motion to subpoena COA’s report on the use of these funds from 2022 to 2023.
COA reported last year that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) spent P125 million in CIF in just 11 days, translating to around P11 million spent per day.
Duterte corrected the information saying the money was spent in 19 days or from Dec. 13 to 31, 2022.
House Deputy Majority Leader and Iloilo 1st District Rep. Janette Garin warned against jumping to conclusions, saying that the intention behind the motion to subpoena COA’s findings by Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, was primarily to ensure proper safeguards for the allocation of confidential funds.
“Let’s cross the bridge when it comes. In my view, the intention is to ensure that it doesn’t happen again in case someone did actually misuse their confidential funds),” Garin told reporters in a mixture of English and Filipino.
Assistant Majority Leader and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong also weighed in, underscoring that the COA’s findings are part of the regular budgeting process and that there is no indication, so far, that these findings would set off the impeachment process.
“Impeachment is not only divisive but also counterproductive. It counters the things that we do here in the House of Representatives. We are aiming to really push for the progress of our country, economically, socially, and in terms of peace and order,” he pointed out.
Adiong further emphasized that focusing on an impeachment process without clear grounds would undermine the significant legislative work being done in Congress.
For his part, 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez stressed that impeachment is a serious constitutional process with strict grounds.
“Impeachment is not a light matter, this is explicitly mentioned by the Constitution. There are very strict grounds for these,” he stressed.
Furthermore, even if COA’s findings were to indicate discrepancies, determining whether those findings would justify impeachment is still a long process, Gutierrez noted.
Meanwhile, the same House members challenged the Vice President to identify the individuals allegedly spreading rumors about her supposedly brewing impeachment.
Duterte earlier claimed that the information came from her “close friends” at the House of Representatives.
Garin said she has not heard of any impeachment in the offing.
“It would be such a waste of time talking about an issue that has no value… because nothing is going on. We have too much work in Congress… everyone is busy with the budget deliberations,” she stressed.
“We want to know who is sowing intrigue, so we can determine if they have vested interests. Maybe they are misleading the Vice President because they have nothing better to do,” she added.
Gutierrez practically echoed Garin’s statement, saying he has not heard any talk about impeaching Duterte.
“We are very busy here. So, I’m not sure where the allegation of impeachment is coming from,” he said.
For his part, Adiong called for an end to the impeachment rumors saying, “the current House leadership under Speaker Martin Romuladez is focused on advancing the nation’s interests and promoting unity. “
House Assistant Majority Leader and La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V rejected the allegations, saying they had already looked into the matter and found out there was no basis for such claims.
“Maybe, she (Duterte) should identify the friends feeding her information (about an impeachment), so we can determine if there is any validity to what she is hearing from the grapevine,” he said.
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