Former Office of the Vice President (OVP) special disbursing officer Gina Acosta revealed that confidential funds were spent on tree-planting initiatives under the banner of the agency’s “good governance programs.”
Testifying as a hostile witness for the prosecution during the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Monday, August 17, Acosta underwent direct examination by private prosecutor Atty. Amando Ligutan.
Acosta asserted that virtually any type of operation could be financed using confidential funds, provided it was classified as a good governance endeavor.
In her former role as the OVP’s SDO, Acosta prepared the primary documentation submitted to the Commission on Audit (COA) to liquidate P500 million in confidential funds allocated to the office from 2022 to 2023.
Acosta conceded that the physical and financial plan approved by the agency head to support the confidential fund request lacked specific details, characterizing the document as “generic.”
Now serving as a vice presidential staff officer VI, Acosta maintained that Joint Circular 2015-01—which establishes guidelines for confidential and intelligence fund entitlement, release, utilization, reporting, and auditing—does not explicitly require an itemized breakdown of programs within the plan.
However, Ligutan pointed out that the joint circular includes at least two explicit stipulations mandating that “cash advances shall be used for specific legal purpose” and that “agencies shall report the specific detail of the corresponding expenditures.”
Acosta clarified that granular details were provided in supporting attachments submitted to COA for auditing, which she stated came directly from former Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group commander Col. Raymund Dante Lachica.
She explained that Lachica provided all granular inputs because he was the expert on the ground directly executing the initiatives funded by confidential monies.
When asked by Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, presiding officer of the impeachment court, if she accepted all of Lachica’s submissions for the liquidation of confidential funds—including tree-planting as a good governance program—Acosta answered in the affirmative.
Acosta added that all submissions and plans were presented to the Vice President for final approval, with Lachica providing guidance on eligible expenditure types.
Her testimony follows statements made last week by COA state auditors Roderick Wamil and Xylene del Campo, who testified that Duterte delegated the disbursement of the OVP’s entire ₱500 million confidential fund to Lachica, despite him not being an accountable officer under the joint circular.
The prosecution entered Acosta’s testimony into evidence for Article I of the Articles of Impeachment, which alleges that offices under Duterte misused ₱612.5 million in confidential funds between December 2022 and the third quarter of 2023.