Lemuel Ortonio, assistant chief of staff and assistant secretary of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) took offense at the word, “nagtatangahan” (playing dumb).
Well, it was tedious listening to his nonsensical answers.
He claimed no personal knowledge about how the confidential funds flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) were disbursed and yet, he penned the reply to COA. Ortonio said he took the word of Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, former security chief of the OVP who implemented the activities on the ground.
And then, there’s Gina Acosta, special disbursing officer (SDO) responsible for managing the OVP confidential funds. She also disavowed knowledge of how the confidential funds were spent. She trusted Lachica. She asked no questions.
Ortonio and Acosta’s replies defy logic. It’s either they’re very stupid (highly unlikely), very incompetent (unlikely or why would they be in their positions) or very loyal and ready to die on this hill (very likely).
Despite the lack of verifiable documentation, they asked no questions and claimed to accept Lachica’s word as gospel truth.
SDO Acosta did say there was nothing unusual about their procedure: her encashing of the checks at the bank upon the instructions of the VP and her turnover of the cash to Lachica for disbursement on the ground.
She did the same when she was SDO for confidential funds for VP Sara when the VP was mayor of Davao City. What a bombshell.
Confidential funds must be PERSONALLY disbursed SOLELY by duly designated fidelity-bonded SDOs. Acosta was the only person authorized by law to disburse the confidential funds. She could NOT delegate this duty.
And even though Acosta claims she acted on the direct verbal instructions of the VP; executive orders cannot override national audit laws.
Is Acosta really the forgetful old lady she claims to be? The one who claims to have a problem understanding Tagalog? I think she is a loyal soldier willing to die on this hill.
Ortonio and Acosta’s replies to questions were so contrived that after some time, they were so predictable I could finish their sentences.
Disbursements supported by acknowledgement receipts (ARs) that were signed by names so absurd they had to be fabricated. If the names were not of animals, they were combinations of popular Filipino snack items and restaurant chains.
While COA rules are silent on the use of aliases, neither explicitly permitting nor banning it, financial receipts must still translate to verifiable transactions.
But it wasn’t just the names. The ARs revealed identical handwriting and ink across hundreds of receipts supposedly signed by different people across different regions across the country. And some ARs were dated before the confidential funds were even released by the bank.
Were the ARs mass-produced inside an office to retroactively fit COA rules?
The OVP submitted 845 ARs to liquidate P125 million for operations that spanned 132 areas across the country in just 11 days. Lachica was the sole distributor of the money.
One person distributing P125 million to 845 recipients across 132 areas in the country in just 11 days.
This means Lachica traveled to 12 places around the country, collected 77 different signatures and disbursed a total of P11.36 million, on the average. All in one, single day. Is that even logistically possible?
And yet, Ortonio and Acosta asked no questions. And we find this incredulous. Where did the money go? Maybe, Ortonio and Acosta didn’t ask—because they already know.
Now, I feel truly and immensely offended.