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Daphne Galvez - The Philippine Star
August 26, 2026 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Vice President (OVP) requested P250 million in confidential funds before it had even prepared a plan on how to spend it, a witness testified before the Senate impeachment court yesterday.
During direct examination by private prosecutor Mae Divinagracia, OVP Assistant Secretary Lemuel Ortonio, who also serves as the agency’s assistant chief-of-staff, confirmed that they asked the Department of Budget Management (DBM), through a letter on Aug. 22, 2022, for confidential funds, among other items, before submitting a physical and financial plan (PFP) for the funding.
Under Joint Circular 2015-01, which governs the use of confidential funds, all allocations of confidential or intelligence funds are required to be supported with a PFP indicating the proposed amount allocated for each program, activity and project.
Ortonio said the OVP’s request included augmentation of financial assistance and subsidy, augmentation of special duty allowance and 192 additional coterminous and contractual positions.
He said that out of all the items requested, it was only the item for confidential funds that did not have any attachments like the PFP, computations and projections.
“Yes, there were no attachments,” Ortonio said.
He also confirmed that Duterte signed off on the request for the P250-million confidential funds.
Divinagracia then pointed out that the August 2022 letter only stated that the OVP committed “to formulate programs, projects and activities relevant to national security and peace and order.”
Ortonio said the OVP only prepared the PFP on Sept. 16, 2022, nearly a month after its request to the DBM, and this was submitted to the latter three days later.
A PFP, according to the circular, is a document approved by the head of the agency supporting the request for funds for confidential and intelligence expenses and should contain the estimated amount per project, activity and program.
Ortonio confirmed that there was no itemization of programs and activities under the PFP and that it only listed “”Good Governance Programs” as an umbrella program of the OVP.
The prosecution then pointed out that the OVP’s PFP for 2023 contained “verbatim reproductions” of its previous version, but indicated “socioeconomic program delivery” under the programs, activities and projects.
Authentication
As the Senate impeachment court examined disbursement and liquidation documents submitted by the OVP, the House prosecution panel said Ortonio’s close proximity to Duterte for nearly two decades makes him a crucial figure in authenticating evidence.
The issue surfaced after the court noted apparent differences between two signatures attributed to Duterte on documents involving the confidential funds.
House prosecution spokesman and Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said Ortonio confirmed that both signatures were Duterte’s despite differences in their strokes.
“The presiding officer merely wanted to confirm with the witness whether both signatures were in fact signed by the Vice President,” Adiong said. “There is no question that the Vice President signed and approved the documents.”
Adiong said the confirmation was important because vouchers and checks related to the confidential funds passed through Ortonio before the money was released.
“He has been with the Vice President for almost 20 years, so he knows her signature very well because these documents passed through him,” he stressed.
The prosecution said the testimony could strengthen its contention that Duterte personally approved documents involving the release and use of confidential funds. It also questioned the circumstances surrounding the OVP’s request for the funds shortly after Duterte assumed office in 2022.
Adiong said the eventual P125-million release was spent in only 11 days, from Dec. 20 to 31, 2022, a spending pattern the prosecution has described as unusual. The prosecution previously contrasted this with subsequent P125-million releases that were spent over substantially longer periods.
The sequence raised questions about whether the OVP had already planned its confidential activities before requesting the funds.
“The intended government expenses and transactions should have a plan because that would determine how much you need,” he said.
“What happened here was the reverse: they requested the funds, and after the request was granted, that was when they started using them and apparently made the plans.”
Sealed documents
Meanwhile, Ortonio yesterday admitted that he submitted protective intelligence operations reports to the Commission on Audit (COA) without reading them, saying the documents were already sealed when they were turned over to him.
Ortonio, the designated liaison officer for the OVP’s confidential funds, told the impeachment court that he merely transmitted the sealed reports to COA as attachments to the office’s replies to audit observation memoranda.
Asked by the prosecution whether he had read the reports or even asked the security officer or special disbursing officer about their contents, Ortonio answered no.
Ortonio also testified that the OVP gave confidential funds directly to informants to purchase food, medicine and chairs, with the payments also serving as compensation.
He acknowledged that no official receipts were attached to the transactions.
Ortonio testified that he personally advanced P150,000 for confidential fund expenses and was never reimbursed.
He said the amount covered P50,000 in rewards and P100,000 for supplies and was given after former OVP special disbursing officer Gina Acosta approached him with an urgent request from Col. Raymund Lachica.
Asked whether the Vice President knew, supervised or authorized the confidential fund transactions and the OVP’s responses to COA, Ortonio said the VP knew about the confidential activities and how they were implemented. — Mark Ernest Villeza
