The former special disbursing officer (SDO) for Vice President Sara Duterte’s ₱500 million in confidential funds admitted on Monday that she placed complete trust in former security aide Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, accepting without question his explanation and the documents he gave her to justify fund spending.
Gina Acosta repeatedly told the Senate impeachment court trying Duterte for alleged fund misuse that she entrusted the money to Lachica, the commanding officer of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group at that time, even if he was not a bonded officer.
Duterte, she said, designated Lachica to implement her confidential activities and operations.
Acosta’s repeated line frustrated senator-judges, including Senate President Pro Tempore Vicente Sotto III, who admonished her “template” response.
Some of them warned her that she may be held accountable for the alleged misuse of the confidential funds, as it was revealed that she no longer has in her possession the acknowledgment receipts (ARs) that supposedly showed proof of payment to informants who helped implement the confidential activities.
Hostile witness
According to Acosta, a hostile witness for the prosecution in Duterte’s impeachment trial, Lachica took back the ARs that the prosecution had earlier questioned for containing odd-sounding and even familiar names.
The former SDO acknowledged that she did question Lachica about the ARs after noticing that some receipts did not contain names and signatures.
Private prosecutor Amando Ligutan had asked Acosta if she found the ₱16 million spent for “rental payments” for the maintenance of safehouses to be “unconscionable” or “extravagant” as stipulated in the Commission on Audit’s (COA) Joint Memorandum Circular 2015-01, which governs the use of confidential and intelligence funds.
The rental payments were among the expenditures incurred by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) from the ₱125 million in confidential funds it disbursed for the last quarter of 2022, specifically from Dec. 21–31, 2022.
“This is ₱1.4 million a day [in rental of safehouses],” Ligutan told Acosta. The OVP, he added, also paid ₱85 million for supplies, medicines and food aid as part of its fund spending for the same period.
“I relied on the document of our security officer who implemented the confidential activities,” Acosta repeatedly replied.
When presiding officer and Senator-judge Francis Escudero asked the witness whether she thought of asking them from Lachica, she said she did ask once.
“Your Honor, as I browsed, or as I verified, the ARs given to me by security officer Lachica, I asked him. ‘I noticed that some of the ARs did not have dates, names, and signatures [of recipients],’” she said.
“The security officer told me: ‘Ma’am Gina, whatever I gave you as documents, that’s it. Because the transactions, or operations there, are very sensitive and contain confidential information. And that’s why whatever ARs I gave you, that’s it,” Acosta said in Filipino.
Trust or receipts?
Sen. Risa Hontiveros pressed Acosta on this answer: “What is required, trust or receipts?” The witness replied: “I put trust in the documents he gave me, and VP Sara designated him as our security officer.”
Hontiveros asked her if she reported to Duterte that she had transferred the encashed confidential funds to Lachica. Acosta said she sent a text message to the Vice President about it.
When the senator-judge asked Acosta if Duterte instructed Lachica on how to spend the confidential funds, she said she did not know.
Escudero asked Acosta how come the OVP liquidated ₱150,000 more on top of the ₱125 million it got from the last 11 days of December 2022, as presented by the prosecution panel earlier.
She explained that shortly after she handed the ₱125 million to Lachica, the security officer called her to say he needed ₱150,000 more for “security purposes.”
“I called up [Duterte’s assistant chief of staff] Lemuel Ortonio. The money came from him,” Acosta said. She added that she did not know where Ortonio got the ₱150,000.
Not a bonded officer
The prosecution panel questioned Acosta on why, under COA Joint Circular 2015-01, she entrusted the confidential funds to Lachica, when one accountable officer cannot transfer these funds to another.
She said she disbursed the money to Lachica because he was the special officer whom Duterte designated to implement the confidential activities.
Acosta gave Ligutan the same answer when asked why she handed the funds although Lachica was not a bonded officer. “To protect the people’s money, at least there is a bond to recover it if it were lost,” the prosecutor said.
“I’m accountable,” the witness said as she was, after all, the one who made the liquidation report on the confidential funds.
When asked by Escudero, Acosta said she could not remember the amount of bond she posted when handling the OVP confidential funds.
The presiding officer also sought to distinguish between disbursement and implementation after Acosta repeatedly said she disbursed the confidential funds to Lachica while he implemented the confidential activities.
He asked her whether Lachica asked someone to help him disburse the money in one day but in eight different locations. “I do not know; I cannot say,” she responded, saying anew that Lachica was on the ground after all.
“Did he disburse to other people?” Escudero asked. “Did he pocket the money?” She replied in the negative.
But eventually, she acknowledged that Lachica did “disburse” the money he received during the implementation of the confidential activities and operations. “He was the one who paid,” she said.
Acknowledgment receipts
When questioned by Ligutan and Escudero, Acosta admitted that it was standard operating procedure that when she served both as SDO of Duterte as mayor (from 2018–2022) and as Vice President (2022–2023), she would release confidential funds to the designated security officer, who in turn submits ARs to her for liquidation.
But the ARs would be taken by the security officer after she had submitted her liquidation report to COA.
Her statement came after she admitted that Lachica took back the ARs he sent her as proof of payment for the purchases of products and services using the confidential funds.
Ligutan asked whether this practice was “unusual,” prompting defense lawyer Lindon Bacquel to object.
Bacquel asked Acosta whether her repeated answers to questions were due to the repeated questions. “That’s vague,” Ligutan objected, adding: “Nice try.” The defense lawyer withdrew his question.
Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo said he pitied Acosta, noting that he believed she was “not corrupt” and that she was being grilled now in the impeachment court while others benefited from these funds. “My heart goes to you,” he said.
Tulfo had initially called her “stupid in the name of blind loyalty”’ after he asked her if she did not doubt Lachica’s word, given that the prosecution panel presented more odd-sounding names of supposed informants who were paid from confidential funds.
Among the odd-sounding names were Shane Ngitngit, Xuniso P. Belat, Antonio Pagong and Timon Andrew Pusa.
Tulfo asked Acosta if she was smart, average, or stupid, and she said she was just average. “I just relied on the document submitted to me,” she told him.
Hontiveros pointed out to Acosta that one of the supposed recipients was Clarisse Hontiveros, who received the payment on Feb. 24, 2023. She said Feb. 24 happens to be her birthday, calling this information a “coincidence” and an “extraordinary detail.” CS
Read more: More odd-sounding names of Duterte secret fund ‘recipients’ listed
