Does former vice president and Angat Buhay NGO chair Leni Robredo disagree with the House Quad Committee’s investigation into her successor’s millions-worth confidential funds?
A TikTok account shared a quote card claiming to have come from a supposed interview featuring Robredo, who allegedly shared her thoughts about the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability‘s probe into the issue.
The House Quad Committee has been conducting hearings on the alleged misuse of the incumbent Office of the Vice President‘s confidential and intelligence funds, as well as the Department of Education‘s.
Vice President Sara Duterte, Robredo’s successor, also served as the education secretary for two years.
In 2022, the OVP under Duterte spent P125 million of confidential funds for 11 days.
Documents submitted by her office to the Commission on Audit have been undergoing scrutiny by lawmakers, with some noticing unusual names like “Mary Grace Piattos,” “Chippy McDonald,” “Fernando Tempura,” “Raymunda Jay Nova,” and “Carlos Miguel Oishi.”
It was also discovered in the hearings that Duterte’s special disbursing officers (SDOs) were unaware of how the confidential funds were used despite being responsible for disbursing them.
Amid the probe, TikTok account @redhawkphilippines claimed that Robredo chimed in on the issue and disagreed with the congressional scrutiny.
The account also posted a quote card alleging to have contained words from the former vice president. Part of it reads:
“Ang confidential funds kasi is for general use, unlike budgets na may specific na ano, na, paggagamitan. Ang gusto kasi ng Quad Com is detalyado ang reports ng OVP, peso by peso. Dapat sabihin saan ginamit, eh hindi po ganun ‘yun. Hindi pwede ‘yung gusto nila [kasi] confidential funds nga ‘yun.”
Typing some of the alleged quotes in a search engine does not yield any legitimate news report or interview of Robredo sharing such thoughts.
Based on her official Facebook page, the former vice president is busy with the activities of her non-government organization.
There are no reports of Robredo, who did not have any confidential funds when she was in office from 2016 to 2022, commenting on the issue surrounding her successor.
Meanwhile, the highest budget that was allocated to the Robredo-led OVP was P900 million in 2021.
Reports said the combined total of funds granted to Robredo from 2017 to 2022 — which amounts to some P3.9 billion — is smaller than the total OVP budget Duterte has received in just two years of office (P4.2 billion).
