MANILA, Philippines – Members of civil society groups and the church filed a plunder complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte with the Office of the Ombudsman on Friday, December 12.

The groups hinged their complaint on Duterte’s alleged misuse of her confidential funds as vice president and when was Department of Education (DepEd) secretary.

Complainants include activists-priests Flavie Villanueva and Roberto Reyes, former finance undersecretary Cielo Magno, and former peace adviser Teresita Deles, among others.

Apart from plunder, the complaint also includes the following allegations against the Vice President and some Office of the Vice President (OVP) and DepEd officials:

• Violation of section 3(a) and (e) of Republic Act No. 3019 or Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act
• Malversation under Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC)
• Bribery and/or corruption of public officials under Articles 210 and 212 of the RPC
• Betrayal of public trust under Article XI, Section 2 of the 1987 Constitution
• Culpable violation of the 1987 Constitution

A legislative inquiry revealed that contingent funds of the 2022 national budget were transferred for the OVP’s P125-million confidential funds, which Duterte’s office spent in only 11 days.

In June, the House of Representatives adopted the good government committee report recommending the filing of criminal, civil, and administrative complaints against the Vice President. The panel found that a total of P612.5 million confidential funds were disbursed under Duterte’s leadership of both the OVP and DepEd.

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla said in October that the House committee report is a “good guide” for them in evaluating the issue of confidential funds.

The issue of confidential funds was also among the grounds of the impeachment complaint against the Vice President. Based on the House’s Articles of Impeachment, Duterte allegedly betrayed public trust and committed graft and corruption in her misuse and malversation of her confidential funds.

Duterte was impeached by the lower chamber, but the trial was cut short even before it could start as the Supreme Court voided the articles of impeachment against the Vice President.

Challenge with plunder

Plunder is among the most difficult offenses to prosecute. It has three main elements:

• The offender is a public officer who acts by her/himself or in connivance with others
• The offender amasses ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt or criminal acts
• The total amount in question is at least P50 million

Also, the amount in question is not just about the value of money in the alleged questionable transactions, but it must be the amount of the ill-gotten wealth allegedly acquired for personal enrichment. 

It’s not as simple as alleging that Duterte had misused her funds — the complainants must prove that the Vice President allegedly amassed the amount in question to enrich herself.

“The second element of amassing, accumulating, or acquiring ill-gotten wealth was done through (1) misappropriation, conversion, misuse, and malversation; and through (2) illegal and fraudulent disposition of assets belonging to the National Government,” the complaint read.

In the pork barrel scam, Janet Lim Napoles was found guilty of plunder because the projects were proven to be non-existent, and the discretionary funds exceeding P50 million had been used to enrich herself.

But this was not the case for big fish like Senator Jinggoy Estrada and former senators Bong Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile who were all acquitted of plunder because the anti-graft court said the elements of plunder were absent in their respective cases. In the case of Estrada, he was convicted of bribery.

The concept of “main plunderer” also arose in the pork barrel scam, requiring the prosecution to prove that there is a main actor in a case to prove that plunder had been committed.

“The only logical conclusion which can be drawn from the circumstances is that confidential funds of the OVP and the DepEd were plundered by the respondents, with Respondent Duterte as the ‘main plunderer’,” the complaint against Duterte said. – Rappler.com