A Bukidnon lawmaker says Vice President Sara Duterte does not need confidential funds because she can still carry out the same activities without them. During the Senate’s impeachment proceedings on Wednesday, Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores pointed to Duterte’s continued participation in activities such as tree-planting, Christmas parties, and consultation meetings.
Flores argues that confidential funds should not be provided to the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education since confidential activities allegedly do not fall within their mandates. He also said he aligns with former Commission on Audit (COA) Commissioner Heidi Mendoza on the issue, according to his remarks to reporters.
The reports focus on Duterte’s ability to perform public activities and on the legal/oversight question of whether confidential funds are justified for the OVP and DepEd. Both accounts attribute the claim to Flores and cite the same set of events and the same position attributed to Mendoza, without presenting an opposing view from Duterte’s camp or COA’s findings in the cited excerpts.
