MANILA—An Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officer testified Tuesday that a military certification issued in connection with Department of Education (DepEd) activities did not contain any information on the agency’s confidential fund spending.

Col. Manaros Boransing II made the statement during Day 20 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, as the prosecution presented him as a witness.

Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros questioned Boransing about the use of the certification issued by the military as justification for DepEd’s reported expenses for Youth Leadership Summit (YLS) and Information Education Campaign (IEC) activities.

“Lumalabas po dito sa pag-present sa inyo bilang witness na ginamit po ng DepEd ang certification niyo bilang justification kung paano daw ginastos ng department ang kanilang confidential and intelligence funds. Pero kayo mismo, Colonel, may sinabi ba kayo sa certification ninyo kung magkano ‘di umano ang ginastos ng DepEd para dun sa activities ng Philippine Army?” Hontiveros asked.

“Your honor, there was no mention of any funds in the certification that we issued,” Boransing replied.

Boransing said his unit did not receive confidential funds from DepEd during Duterte’s tenure as education secretary for eight leadership seminars conducted in Mindanao provinces in 2023.

He said the military participated in the YLS with DepEd but had no knowledge of how the department financed the seminars.

“I have no knowledge on [DepEd’s] source of funds. I can only speak for us,” Boransing said.

“There were no DepEd funds downloaded to our unit,” he added.

According to Boransing, DepEd provided the military with information about participating schools and students’ schedules to determine their availability for the seminars.

Boransing was among the military officials who issued certifications in January 2024 after being requested to do so by then DepEd Undersecretary Michael Poa, who is now part of Duterte’s defense team.

Poa had said he sought the certifications in response to questions from state auditors regarding documentary support for DepEd’s P15.5 million confidential fund expenditures for rewards to informants.

Boransing said he was unaware that his certification would later be used to support DepEd’s confidential fund spending.

“I have no knowledge of that. I haven’t even read COA (Commission on Audit) documents,” he said.

He also said he did not have any particular reaction when he learned that the certification had been used to justify DepEd’s confidential fund expenses.

“I did not have any reaction,” Boransing said.

Asked whether he would have issued the same certification had he known that DepEd would use it to justify its P15.54 million confidential fund spending, Boransing said he could not say.

“It is hard to speculate what I would have done,” Boransing added.