CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – Impeached Vice President Sara Duterte’s spending of hundreds of millions of pesos in confidential and intelligence funds has drawn increased public attention to her ongoing Senate impeachment trial. But beyond the accounting of those funds lies a bigger question: Why does the political system give elected officials access to large pools of public money that, by design, remain beyond ordinary public scrutiny?
Duterte’s spending during her first two years as vice president, when she also served as education secretary, is part of the evidence in the impeachment trial proceedings. State auditors Roderick Wamil and Xylene Mae del Campo testified about confidential and intelligence funds — over P612 million — spent by the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education when she headed it.
Evidence presented showed spending on parties, tree-planting activities and other events, as well as surveillance and profiling of people, including participants at gatherings attended by Duterte.
Auditors found recipients for whom there was no apparent proof that money had actually been received beyond acknowledgment receipts bearing names that appeared spurious or, in many cases, sounded almost comical.
