A MILITARY official maintained on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, that his unit did not receive any funds from the Department of Education (DepEd) under Vice President Sara Duterte as the secretary in 2023 for the conduct of eight Youth Leadership Summit (YLS) in Mindanao provinces.
During the resumption of the impeachment trial of Duterte, former assistant chief of staff for civil military operations of the 1st Infantry Division and now Task Force Zamboanga commander Colonel Manaros Boransing II said the funds used by the unit for the YLS exclusively came from the budget of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
“As I earlier said, sir, no funds whatsoever or any amount was downloaded to the First Infantry Tabak Division for 2023 for the Youth Leadership Summit and information, education, communication campaigns, sir, by any government agencies,” he said.
The YLS is an inter-agency program led by the 1st Infantry Division, which aims to prevent youth recruitment to violent extremism. Other agencies involved in the said activity shoulder their own expenses.
Boransing issued a certification, which was used by the DepEd to justify the use of its confidential fund amounting to P15.54 million out of the agency’s P112.5 million in confidential expenses in 2023.
The certification includes information about the activity, including the number of attendees and the report pertaining to the success of the program.
The P15.54 million was part of the P75 million in confidential funds of the DepEd initially flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) for lack of supporting documents.
Boransing said former DepEd undersecretary retired Major General Nolasco Mempin requested for such certification, but he was not initially made aware that it will be used to justify the use of confidential funds.
He said there were inputs from DepEd for the event but only on the information about the participants and the areas where it should advisably be held. (TPM/VoxPop Philippines)