Senate impeachment court declares OVP official Lemuel Ortonio a hostile witness

The Senate Impeachment Court on Tuesday declared Office of the Vice President (OVP) Assistant Secretary and Assistant Chief of Staff Lemuel Ortonio a hostile witness after finding that his continued employment under Vice President Sara Z. Duterte gives him an adverse interest in the proceedings.

Presiding Officer Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero made the ruling after Ortonio confirmed that he serves at Duterte’s pleasure, reports directly to her and holds a co-terminus position.

Escudero asked Ortonio whether he would also lose his post if Duterte is impeached and removed from office.

“That’s correct, Your Honor,” Ortonio replied.

The OVP official also confirmed that he remains employed by Duterte.

“To abbreviate the proceedings, the court declares Mr. Ortonio as a hostile witness based on his adverse interest vis-à-vis the respondent and the prosecution,” Escudero ruled.

The ruling allows prosecution counsel Mae Divinagracia to ask Ortonio leading questions during her direct examination.

Escudero, however, reminded the prosecution that leading questions being allowed for a hostile witness does not permit misleading questions.

The ruling came after the defense objected to Divinagracia’s questions about Ortonio’s father, Ernesto Nemenzo Ortonio Jr., whom the prosecution identified as president and board member of PNX Udenna Insurance Brokers Inc.

The company is chaired by businessman Dennis Uy, who is a known personal ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The prosecution sought to establish Ortonio’s alleged adverse interest through his family and social connections, prompting Escudero to ask whether that line of questioning was intended to qualify him as hostile.

Divinagracia answered in the affirmative.

“This will establish this witness has an adverse interest, Your Honor, in this case,” she said.

Escudero then said Ortonio’s employment relationship with Duterte was already sufficient to resolve the matter.

Before the ruling, Ortonio testified that he began serving as OVP assistant secretary and assistant chief of staff in July 2022.

“I report directly to the Vice President Sara Duterte,” Ortonio told the impeachment court.

‘Confidential funds had no legitimate purpose’

The House prosecution is presenting Ortonio on Day 18 of Duterte’s impeachment trial as a hostile witness to prove that the OVP’s PHP500 million confidential funds had no legitimate confidential purpose, were irregularly reported, and remain unaccounted for.

Divinagracia said the prosecution would prove 11 points through Ortonio, beginning with its claim that the confidential funds “answered to no legitimate confidential purpose.”

Divinagracia said the original request of the OVP for PHP250 million in confidential funds was made before the supporting plan was produced, while the 2023 plan repeated the operative language of the 2022 plan.

She said the prosecution would also show Duterte’s authority and approval in key documents.

“The respondent’s handprints are in every document that mattered,” Divinagracia said. “Mula request hanggang liquidation, nasa mahalagang dokumento ang kanyang otoridad at pag-apruba (From request to liquidation, her authority and approval are in the important documents).”

Divinagracia said the liquidation and accomplishment reports followed a pattern that appeared designed to comply with rules rather than reflect actual operations. “The reports were written to fit the rules, not the facts,” she said.

The prosecution also cited the Commission on Audit’s (COA) questioning of medical and food aid items in the first three accomplishment reports, amounting to PHP40 million, PHP42 million, and PHP40 million.

Divinagracia noted that five days after the audit issue was raised, the item disappeared from the final accomplishment report, yet the total still reached exactly PHP125 million.

She said the prosecution would further show that in two years of reported confidential fund use, no specific area, operation, or date was identified.

Divinagracia said the liquidation was “late, irregular, and backdated,” citing receipts submitted 10 months late and more than 100 receipts dated one year after the supposed payments.

She also challenged certifications attached to the liquidation, saying they “vouched for nothing and were signed by the man who received the money.”

The prosecution said the PHP500 million allegedly bought protection Duterte already had.

Divinagracia said 473 soldiers and police were already assigned to guard her, funded from other appropriations, while threats attributed in the reports to the New People’s Army and terrorist groups were already covered by Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police intelligence funds.

Divinagracia also said the justification for the funds shifted depending on the document or finding: from safe implementation of good governance programs in the Department of Budget and Management request, to confidence-building and socioeconomic program delivery in plans, surveillance and information gathering in certifications, intelligence gathering in protective intelligence reports, and surveillance activities in audit responses.

The prosecution said the people with supposed personal knowledge did not answer, while Ortonio signed responses to the COA despite allegedly saying he had no personal knowledge.

“The officials who knew answered nothing. The man who says he knew nothing answered everything,” Divinagracia said.

She closed the offer by saying the explanations for the confidential funds were a “sham” and that failure to account for the money gives rise to a presumption of misappropriation.

Ortonio is expected to be questioned about the handling of PHP500 million in OVP confidential funds released in four PHP125-million tranches from December 2022 through 2023.

A prosecution witness from the Land Bank of the Philippines earlier identified Ortonio as the one who accompanied former OVP special disbursing officer Gina Acosta in withdrawing the funds.

Acosta, also presented by the prosecution as a hostile witness, testified earlier that the confidential funds were turned over to then-Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group commander Col. Raymund Dante Lachica upon Duterte’s instruction.

-Philippine News Agency