On Day Ten of the impeachment trial, Representative Leila de Lima rose to open the funds case. The court cut her short, and that troubled me.
I write this from Mindanao, watching closely. Sara Duterte rose from Davao City politics. Her home island reads every ruling with feeling. We followed the July 29 hearing with care. That day I felt accountability hit a wall.
De Lima opened Article I for the prosecution. She anchored it to P612.5 million in funds. She pressed one question: “was that trust honored?” I wanted to hear that framing in full.
The defense said she drew early conclusions. Counsel Michael Poa pressed that objection hard. He warned it might sway the public.
Presiding Officer Chiz Escudero weighed the protest. He cautioned her against conclusions of law. Then he stopped her opening statement short. He asked the panel to call its witnesses. I believe that ruling went too far.
An opening statement previews the case ahead. Prosecutors are meant to outline their theory. De Lima was doing exactly that work. Cutting her short narrowed a basic right.
Testing her claims belongs to the evidence. That is what cross-examination exists to do. Silencing the preview served no one well.
𝑭𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒍
The court then turned to the records. Violeta Constantino managed the Shaw Boulevard branch. She testified on four checks of P125 million. That totaled P500 million from the OVP. Officer Gina Acosta encashed them for the office.
Those withdrawals ran from December 2022 onward. They stretched through July 2023 in stages. The bank had to prepare that cash carefully. Such sums need advance coordination to release.
Nenita Camposano led the LandBank DepEd branch. She testified on three checks of P37.5 million. Officer Edward Fajarda encashed that P112.5 million.
She also helped authenticate the prosecution’s documents. Her account clarified how the funds moved.
The two totals reach P612.5 million together. The withdrawals struck the managers as unusual. Cash makes the final recipients hard to trace.
The managers only confirmed records and procedures. Neither called the withdrawals illegal. The court saw no proof of personal benefit. Their knowledge ended once money left the bank.
Cash withdrawals like these worry me. They move value beyond easy tracing. Transparency suffers when records stay thin.
𝗔𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀
Confidential funds once carried a real purpose. But over time the funds slipped their leash. They arrive as lump sums, hard to audit. They escape the usual checks of COA. Their liquidation rules stay far too loose.
This case shows the danger in plain view. The OVP spent P125 million in eleven days. Secret cash invites exactly that kind of speed.
Congress later stripped the OVP of these funds. It denied the office secret money for 2025. It held that line again for 2026. Yet the Office of the President keeps billions. That imbalance should trouble every taxpayer.
The President’s office holds P4.5 billion for 2026. That is the largest single share of all. Budget watchdogs have long urged abolition. Even a former finance official joined that call.
The rot does not stop at the capital. Local governments hold secret funds too. Some of the worst sit here at home.
Davao City stands out among them all. Its confidential funds climbed under Sara Duterte. They rose from P144 million in 2016. They reached P460 million by her final years. That pattern held as she left for higher office.
The city spent over P2.6 billion in six years. That total beat far richer cities easily. Makati and Quezon City spent much less. That came to over a million pesos daily.
The practice did not end with her exit. Her brother Sebastian took the mayor’s chair. The secret spending carried on regardless.
Davao kept its lead into recent years. Its 2024 confidential funds reached P530 million. That single city topped all of Metro Manila. Several cities there spent nothing at all. The gap should shame a proud region.
Think of what that money could build. It could raise classrooms across our barangays. It could mend roads and staff clinics. Instead it vanished into unaudited envelopes.
Defenders call this peace and order work. They cite a war on communist rebels. That defense does not survive the record.
Officials declared Davao insurgency-free in 2022. The army said the NPA fronts were dismantled. They called it the country’s strongest insurgency, now ended. Yet the secret funds kept flowing after that. A vanquished threat cannot justify hidden billions.
The city spent P460 million that same year. It spent P530 million by 2024 as well. No cleared region needs such secret war chests. The insurgency excuse simply does not hold.
I hold Davao to the same standard of integrity and transparency. The rule must bind every office equally. It must bind mayors and presidents alike. It must bind allies and rivals together.
Accountability loses meaning when it plays favorites.
So I will say it plainly here. Abolish these secret funds across the board. Bind city halls, the OVP, and the Palace.
The Palace calls the funds proper when honest. It ties them to security and foreign policy. I hear that argument and still refuse it.
Public money should reach classrooms and clinics. It should build housing and pay teachers. Every peso hidden is a peso unwatched. Trust grows when the books stay open.
𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒍
The money trail is only the beginning. Someone must trace where the funds landed. Proof of misuse remains the real test.
The bank managers built that first foundation. They confirmed the transactions through official records. They did not decide how funds were spent. The prosecution must still show clear abuse. That burden sits heavy on the coming days.
De Lima stands among eleven House prosecutors. She tied this case to national healing. “There can be no healing without closure,” she said. A silenced opening blurs that closure for me. The court owed her argument a full hearing.
My hope is simple and fair. Let the prosecutor state her case. Let the public hear the whole theory. An opening statement maps what follows. It guides the public through the evidence. We deserved to see that map drawn.
The same daylight should reach the budget. Secret funds and silenced openings share one flaw.
The court should have let her finish. I wanted her full argument on record. And I want these secret funds gone.
(Dean Antonio Gabriel La Viña is from Cagayan de Oro and is a professor of law, philosophy, politics, governance in several universities, including in Mindanao. He was formerly Dean of the Ateneo School of Government. Dean Tony has been a human rights lawyer for 36 years. He is currently the managing partner of La Viña Zarate and Associates, a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, and Chair of the Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy Department of the Philippine Judicial Academy. Dean Tony is founding president of the Movement Against Disinformation and the founding chair of the Mindanao Climate Justice Resource Facility. He is the Chair of the Pinoy Media Center and the Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Samdha Institute.)
