Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV and civil society group The Silent Majority on Wednesday filed plunder, malversation, and graft complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte over the alleged misuse of billions of pesos in public funds.
The complaints, filed before the Office of the Ombudsman, cover Duterte’s actions from her time as vice mayor and later mayor of Davao City up to her terms as vice president and secretary of education.
“This is about accountability,” Trillanes told reporters after filing the complaints, adding that the Vice President should not evade scrutiny over her repeated refusal to explain how her office spent public funds, particularly confidential allocations.
The complaints allege, among others, the plunder and malversation of at least P650 million in confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education; the misuse of P2.7 billion in Davao City confidential funds during her mayoralty; irregularities involving P8 billion worth of allegedly overpriced laptops and P12 billion in disallowed DepEd expenditures; unliquidated cash advances amounting to P7 billion; failure to meet classroom construction targets; and undeclared assets exceeding P2 billion in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth.
In December, civil society leaders also filed a plunder complaint against the Vice President and 15 other officials before the Office of the Ombudsman over the alleged misuse of confidential funds.
One of the complainants, Ramon Magsaysay 2025 awardee Fr. Flaviano Villanueva said he is hopeful the Ombudsman will put an end to the “mockery of the system of checks and balances” enshrined in the Constitution.
“For our public, we are doing this to show that accountability is happening and we will not be shaken by any confrontation or scrutiny because confidential funds are public funds. (The OVP’s confidential funds) should be scrutinized to see if these were used in the right way,” he said.
He said Duterte undermined the essence of public service with what he described as her indiscriminate misuse of public funds without fear of accountability.
Partido Demokratiko Pilipino deputy spokesman Ferdinand Topacio, however, said the complaint was a recycled smear campaign against the Vice President.
The PDP said it viewed the complaint with both “alarm and amusement.”
Topacio said the case only aimed to undermine Duterte’s chances at the presidency in the 2028 elections.
