ASEANEWS HEADLINE-VP DU30 IMPEACHMENT 9.1.26 DAY #20 | MANILA: Boransing insists: No Duterte offices’ funds in Army youth summits

MANILA, Philippines — Not a single peso — whether regular allocations or confidential funds (CF) — from Vice President Sara Duterte’s offices was received or used for the youth leadership summits conducted by the Philippine Army (PA), Col. Manaros Boransing II said on Tuesday.

During the resumption of Duterte’s impeachment trial, Boransing was asked by prosecution lawyer Reynaldo Robles whether the Army’s Youth Leadership Summit (YLS) and the Information Education Communication (IEC) campaign — two anti-communist recruitment initiatives — were funded by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd).

Robles asked this as the DepEd under Duterte cited the YLS and the IEC as activities that would justify the use of their CFs in 2023.  In response, Boransing said they did not receive any CF from Duterte’s offices, and only PA funds were used, and local government unit (LGU) allocations for local partners.

“There was no funding released to the 1st Infantry Division from DepEd, sir, of any source,” Boransing said.

“How about funding, by way of confidential funds, provided by the offices identified with the respondent Vice President Sara Duterte, particularly the OVP, Office of the Vice President, or the Vice President Security and Protection Group or VPSPG, were there funding provided from those offices for your YLS and IEC activities in 2023?” Robles asked.

“For 2023 sir, there were no funds from other government agencies released to 1st Infantry Tabak Division, sir,” Boransing added.

The Army official also clarified that they did not receive even regular funds from OVP, DepEd, or VPSPG.

“I was asking you about confidential funds, now let me ask you about funds in general, confidential or otherwise, how much funding was provided or downloaded to your unit by the DepEd, for your conduct of the YLS and IEC activities for 2023?” Robles asked again.

“As I earlier said, no funds whatsoever or any amount was downloaded to the 1st Infantry Tabak Division for 2023 for the Youth Leadership Summit and Information Education Communication campaign, by any government agency sir,” Boransing answered.

Robles’ inquiry was similar to the questions thrown at Boransing and other PA officials who attended an October 17, 2024, hearing of the House of Representatives’ committee on good government and public accountability — which probed allegations of anomalous CF use within the Vice President’s offices.

During that hearing, Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro — who eventually became chairperson of the committee on justice and lead public prosecutor — observed that DepEd under the Vice President made it seem that they used their CF for the YLS and IEC when it was the PA and LGUs that shouldered most of the expenses.

Luistro made this conclusion after asking Boransing which agencies’ funds were used for the YLS, as the DepEd claimed to have allocated P15 million of its CF.

When Boransing said that they used their own funds, Luistro asked retired former Education Undersecretary and Maj. Gen. Nolasco Mempin if it was true that DepEd did not allocate funds for the YLS since it is an AFP program.

Mempin replied in the affirmative.

However, Luistro was able to solicit a confirmation from the Commission on Audit (COA) that the acknowledgement receipts used by DepEd to show that the P15 million CF was spent for the YLS.  However, DepEd labeled this disbursement as reward to informers.

READ: DepEd under Duterte makes it seem it’s funding AFP training – solon

Boransing and other PA officials told the House panel that they would have not given DepEd certifications for the YLS if they knew that DepEd would use these to justify confidential expenses for rewards to informants.

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READ: Army execs: No DepEd funds certification if we had known actual use

Boransing is the eighth witness presented by the prosecution for Article I of the Articles of Impeachment, or the allegations that the CFs for Duterte’s offices were misused.

Prior to Boransing, the prosecution panel presented two Land Bank of the Philippines officials from which OVP and DepEd withdrew their CFs; COA auditors who checked on the offices’ confidential expenditures; and OVP staffers like former special disbursing officer Gina Acosta.

Last August 24, Acosta testified before the impeachment court that she released OVP’s CFs Col. Raymund Dante Lachica of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) even though she knew that Lachica was not a bonded officer.

Like Boransing, Acosta also appeared before the House committee on good government and public accountability.  During a November 2024 hearing of the panel, Acosta also admitted that it was Duterte who ordered the release of CFs to Lachica. /jpv

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