MANILA — Not a single peso from the Department of Education’s (DepEd) confidential funds during the time of then Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio went to the military’s Youth Leadership Summits in 2023, her former chief of staff told the Senate impeachment court on Wednesday.
Former DepEd Undersecretary Michael Poa made this confirmation as a hostile witness in the impeachment trial of the vice president.
Poa also serves a counsel and spokesman for Duterte’s defense team.
“I’m sure you agree na wala hong binigay ang DepEd sa AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) para maisagawa itong mga youth leadership summit nila?” private prosecutor Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr. asked the witness.
“Yes sir, I confirm that,” Poa answered, but quickly clarified if the private prosecutor was referring to the agency’s confidential funds. Tolosa replied in the affirmative.
This confirmed the testimony of Col. Manaros Boransing II, former assistant chief of staff for civil-military operations of the Army’s 1st Infantry “Tabak” Division, on Tuesday that his unit did not receive any funding from the DepEd when they conducted eight summits in 2023 with other agencies, including the education agency.
Boransing was a signatory to one of the certifications used by the DepEd to justify its use of confidential funds.
Another certification was issued by Col. Magtangol Panopio of the 7th Infantry (Kaugnay) Division, also in connection with DepEd’s attendance in the summits.
But the two Army officials told the impeachment court that their certifications had nothing to do with DepEd’ confidential expenses.
As then chief-of-staff and officer-in-charge of the DepEd’s finance division, Poa was tasked to answer the audit observation memorandum (AOM) issued by the Commission on Audit regarding the agency’s confidential expenditures in 2023.
He said he then requested accomplishment reports from DepEd Undersecretary Nolasco Mempin to support their response to the AOM.
“Nung hiningan ninyo ho sya (Mempin) ng report, ang ginawa ho nya kumuha sya nung mga certificates from members or officials of the AFP?” Tolosa asked again.
“Yan po yung sinumite sakin. Tama po,” Poa said.
Still on Tolosa’s questioning, the witness confirmed that he recalled the army officials telling a House of Representatives hearing that they were not aware their certifications would be used to justify DepEd’s use of its confidential funds.
Poa also admitted that he only knew about the practice of leaving confidential funds (CF) to Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) officials during a House of Representatives hearing in October 2024.
Tolosa asked Poa about the House committee on good government and public accountability proceedings which probed alleged CF misuse within the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the DepEd.
Tolosa showed Poa transcripts of the hearings when he was present, wherein he said that only two individuals knew how CFs under DepEd were spent — Duterte and former special disbursing officer Edward Fajarda. However, Poa was also confronted with Fajarda’s statements in the hearing that he turned over the CF to Col. Dennis Nolasco, former deputy chief of the VPSPG.
“At that time, the only two people who were privy to the confidential fund — these were your statements on October 17 and September 25, 2024 — were the SDO Fajarda and Vice President. But during that hearing, you heard Fajarda say that apparently according to him, he transferred all of the [CF] to Col. Nolasco,” Tolosa said.
“Now this is my question: upon hearing that, was that the first time that you heard it during that hearing?” he asked.
Poa then replied that it was even the first time that he was informed about the existence of a security officer, which was Nolasco.
“I’ll be more precise, actually that was the first time that I heard that there was a security officer,” Poa said.
“Yes, okay, that there’s a security officer, number one; and number two that the funds were transferred, the confidential funds were transferred by SDO Fajarda to Nolasco,” Tolosa clarified, which Poa confirmed again.
After this, Tolosa then asked whether this means Poa was not aware of the role played by Nolasco when he crafted a response to the AOM from COA, where the confidential expenditures made by DepEd in 2023 were flagged.
Poa previously admitted that it was him, as chief-of-staff of DepEd and as officer-in-charge of the DepEd’s finance division, who prepared the response to COA’s AOM.
When he answered Tolosa, Poa said it is correct that he did not know of Nolasco’s role.
“That’s also the first time. So it means that at the time you were preparing your response to the AOMs, you did not even know about this role of Col. Nolasco, correct?” Tolosa asked.
“That’s correct, that’s correct,” Poa replied.
“So at that time that you were preparing that response, necessarily, you were not able to talk to the person who supposedly paid these funds to the informers, is that correct?” Tolosa asked again, to which Poa agreed.
Tolosa then quizzed Poa why he did not discuss the issue of having a third person knowledgeable about the CF disbursements with Duterte, considering that he is one of the closest officials of the Vice President, and as he can contact her directly.
“That was news to you when you suddenly heard because you said in Congress, there was only VP Sara, you said it under oath consistently, VP Sara Duterte and Fajarda who were privy to it. Now October 5, you heard that apparently there’s a third person here who actually handled the funds, Col. Nolasco,” Tolosa said.
“Now, my question is, upon hearing that, did you approach VP Sara since you had direct access to her, to ask ‘Ma’am totoo po ba ‘yong sinabi ni SDO Fajarda na ‘yong confidential funds binigay lahat kay Col. Nolasco?’” he asked.
In response, Poa said it was a strange time since he had just resigned from his last post as OVP spokesperson.
“No, and can I explain […] It was a very strange time at that point because I just resigned as spokesperson of the OVP, so the communication wasn’t like before, at that time,” Poa added.
Prosecution witness and state auditor Roderick Wamil explained that among the observations in the AOM were the OVP’s failure to provide documents evidencing payment and proving the success of information-gathering or surveillance activities to necessitate the payment of rewards.
Wamil also testified that after auditing over 30 agencies’ confidential and intelligence fund expenses in a span of 10 years, it was only during Duterte’s time that he saw agencies rely merely on acknowledgement receipts (ARs) and not submit official receipts.
ARs are documents provided to the Commission on Audit (COA) to show that funding reached its intended beneficiaries, which in OVP and DepEd’s case, are confidential informants. These documents are signed by the beneficiaries to prove that they received payments — like the controversial Mary Grace Piattos which the prosecution claims to be a fictitious personality. (Maila Ager, Gabriel Pabico Lalu © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
