OVP to seek SC remedy over COA's disallowance of P73-M confi funds

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The Office of the Vice President (OVP) Sara Duterte will appeal the Commission on Audit’s notice of disallowance on the P73 million confidential fund disbursement in 2022, defense counsel Michael Poa said Thursday.

Poa was referring to COA’s 15-page Resolution affirming the notice of disallowance with finality for being non-compliant with the 2015 guidelines on confidential fund use.

COA called the OVP’s acknowledgement receipts "at best, a farce, of no significance, and utterly subpar the scintilla of substance which needed to demonstrate the proper disposal of the OVP's confidential fund.”

“When we filed our motion for reconsideration, we were always hoping for the best but also expecting the worst. So we anticipated that this might have been the resolution of the COA Commission proper, and we've always been ready with that,” Poa said in a press conference.

“Definitely, we will raise this up to the Supreme Court via a petition for certiorari based on rule 65 [on grave abuse of discretion],” Poa added.

Poa said he has yet to talk with the Vice President about the COA’s decision, but he said that they will talk to the Vice President before filing the appeal before the Supreme Court.

“We won’t run out of legal remedies when it comes to the COA Resolution. We will just continue to avail of the remedies available for the OVP and specifically for the persons that were named in the disallowance,” Poa said. --VAL, GMA News

The OVP’s alleged misuse of its P500 million worth of confidential fund is one of the allegations in the impeachment case against the Vice President in the ongoing impeachment trial.