by Diego Morra
Despite all the bravado and purported excellence in litigation and mastery in dismantling the evidence and arguments laid bare by the prosecution in the ongoing impeachment trial of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, the proceedings before the Senate only reaffirmed the validity of the allegations contained in the four articles of impeachment against Sara.
It would be next to impossible for the 16 defenders of Sara to destroy the testimony of the hostile witness Gina Acosta, who reaffirmed her earlier narration before the House justice committee in November 2024 that she gave the P375-million of P500-million “Confidential Fund” (CF) of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to Col. Raymund Dante Lachica despite his not being a legitimate special disbursing officer (SDO) under the express order of Sara. Her statement that Sara instructed her to call Col. Lachica upon receipt of the cash from Landbank proved that Sara was behind the illegal disbursement of the “CF” cash.
The same scheme happened at the Department of Education (DepEd), where SDO Edward Fajarda confirmed that he gave the “CF” money to Col. Dennis Nolasco, who was not a legitimate SDO. Both Acosta and Fajarda were not privy to the disbursements of Lachica and Nolasco, who led Sara’s battalion-sized security detail. The witnesses from Landbank also testified that the “unusual” sums of money were released to Acosta and Fajarda in the company of OVP employees. Landbank would not release the money to Lachica and Nolasco. Acosta and Fajarda never questioned the irregular releases of funds to both Lachica and Nolasco despite strict COA rules that barred employees not authorized as SDOs from controlling the funds and disbursing them.
Sara’s instruction was for Acosta and Fajarda to give the money to the two Army officers who were knowledgeable about “intelligence” and “monitoring” operations. In short, Sara was on top of the operation to take the money and spend it. Other documents offered as evidence also showed that as early as July 2022, the OVP was already demanding the release of funds for “national security operations” despite Sara’s not being assigned to play soldier. Why the insistence on snatching part of the duties of the Department of National Defense (DND), the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA)?
Sara wanted the defense portfolio, a post that would have given her more resources to spend in crisscrossing the country and building her political machinery for a potential power-grab or political victory in 2028. When she failed to be appointed as defense chief, Sara sulked and the anti-Bongbong campaign started. However, there is another plausible explanation why Sara was working triple time to organize his mass base in Luzon and demanding that the republic subsidize his ambitious march to Malacanang. If the disclosures of Ramil Madriaga were taken seriously, the Duterte camp wanted to subvert the Marcos Jr. administration from within and without and once Rodrigo Duterte’s purported “term-sharing” between Marcos Jr. and Sara, falls through and a “bloodbath” ensues.
This was the context of the “Tambaluslos” attack by Sara on former Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, coming from the daughter of the original “Tambaluslos” of the Manila YMCA hostel. Since the “term-sharing” scheme was shattered into a million pieces, Sara had to have a casus belli, and the “demotion” of Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at the House of Representatives was cited as a compelling reason to launch a war against the erstwhile ally, Marcos Jr. himself.
Acosta’s damning testimony comes as she has been included in other Sara cases and as a hostile witness, she was supposed to protect her own interest. Yet, Acosta and Fajarda were practically hostaged by Sara to do the dirty job and if the line of questioning by senators aligned with Sara showed, they were banking of making Acosta and Fajarda accountable for the P375-million in OVP “CF” and the P73.5-million that DepEd must return based on a COA order. The attempt was still-born since the fall guys never stole a single red centavo. Sa katunayan, inimbudo ang salapi ng bayan. At sino ang kapural sa paninindikato? Si Fiona, Chucky at Shiminet?
The doctrine “allegata et probata” may apply to criminal law, in which what is alleged must be proven in trial, but can it be salient in an impeachment trial, being “sui generis”? Under Philippine law, a public official with cash in hand, cash in banks and assets much higher than his or her lawful earnings, are deemed to be hidden wealth and accumulated through fraud. For impeachment, plunder and graft, amassing wealth, whether from donations by Apollo Quiboloy or from filching the vaults of Davao City, would render the respondent guilty of committing high crimes and thus should be kicked out of office.#