Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Wednesday questioned what he described as “copy-paste” program descriptions and physical targets in the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) regular budget and Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF).
Lacson raised the issue during the impeachment proceedings involving Vice President Sara Duterte, where he compared figures and program documents from the OVP’s 2022 and 2023 budgets.
He questioned OVP Assistant Chief of Staff Lemuel Ordonio over what he said were virtually identical descriptions and targets appearing in the agency’s regular programs and CIF physical and financial plans.
“Unang una, (sa) regular program, sana man lang pagdating sa PFP (CIF), binago nyo nomenclature. Tapos under the ‘Physical Target’ column sana man lang binago nyo ang activities. Copy-paste eh,” Lacson said.
He cited records showing that the OVP received P621.6 million under the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA), along with P125 million in CIF in the fourth quarter of that year for its “good governance program.”
In 2023, the OVP received P2.21 billion under the GAA and P500 million in CIF, or P125 million per quarter, for its “socio-economic program delivery.”
Lacson also pointed to the OVP’s 2022 and 2023 physical and financial plans, which listed the “number of identified areas with surveillance conducted and monitored” and the “percentage of activities implemented without untoward security-related incidents” as physical targets.
He called the duplication of descriptions and nomenclature “stupid,” but later clarified that the remark referred to the budget documents and program descriptions, not to any individual.
“I did not refer to a person but to the descriptions or nomenclatures of PAPs, PFPs and physical targets,” Lacson said.
Lacson also raised questions about the use of CIF for informant rewards, particularly the identities of individuals listed under aliases.
He said the senator-judges could consider obtaining documents related to the confidential funds to determine whether the alleged informants were real people and actually received reward payments.
“Ang dami sa amin nagtataka talaga, totoo ba talaga ang mga aliases? Totoo bang nakatanggap sila ng rewards, informants’ money?” Lacson said.
He asked impeachment court Presiding Officer Francis Escudero whether the court could subpoena documents covering the CIF programs, physical and financial plans and expected outcomes.
Escudero replied that the court could exercise that power at the appropriate time.
Lacson said there remains a presumption that the funds were properly used but added that questions raised during the trial had prevented the senator-judges from fully resolving their doubts.
“There’s a presumption nagamit nang maayos but still there’s that doubt, we cannot remove that, because there are so many issues na lumabas sa aming trial,” he said.
Lacson said the senator-judges would ultimately base their decision on evidence presented before the court.
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