House recommends filing plunder, bribery, perjury, malversation cases vs Duterte

Metro Manila, Philippines - The House of Representatives has recommended the filing of plunder, bribery, perjury, and technical malversation cases against Vice President Sara Duterte over her alleged misuse of P612.5-million confidential funds.

During the session on Tuesday, June 10, Manila Rep. Joel Chua, chairperson of the good government and public accountability committee, shared the panel report adopted by the plenary.

The committee suggested the filing of the following charges against Duterte and other erring officials:

• technical malversation against Duterte, Office of the Vice President (OVP) special disbursing officer (SDO) Gina Acosta and Department of Education (DepEd) SDO Edward Fajarda

• falsification

• use of falsified documents

• perjury against Duterte and Acosta

• bribery against Duterte and DepEd Assistant Secretary Sunshine Fajarda

• corruption of public officers

• plunder against Duterte, Edward and Sunshine Fajarda, Acosta, OVP chief of staff Zuleika Lopez, OVP assistant chief of staff Lemuel Ortonio, Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group commander Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla, and two military officers

• betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution

Aside from legal recommendations, the committee’s proposals on legislative reforms include to limit which agencies can access confidential funds and to put a cap on allocations, to set stricter SDO qualifications and penalties, and to review the rules of statement of asset, liabilities and net worth for disbursing officers.

In the course of the hearings, lawmakers flagged questionable acknowledgement receipts which have dubious names, similar handwriting of different recipients, and without signatures.

Some OVP and DepEd officials have also admitted they received extra cash in envelopes on top of their salary.

READ: Ex-DepEd official bares extra money; Duterte bucks claim

The findings have become the basis as to why the House impeached Duterte last February.