The session resumed Acosta's direct examination under her existing oath. After questions from both sides, the presiding officer, and senator-judges, the presiding officer excused her from the witness stand.
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Witness record
August 24, 2026
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Gina F. Acosta
Office of the Vice President employee; prosecution witness
Acosta testified that she served as the Office of the Vice President's special disbursing officer for confidential funds from the fourth quarter of 2022 through the third quarter of 2023. She said Vice President Sara Duterte instructed her to release encashed confidential funds to designated security officer Colonel Raymond Dante Lachica, who would implement the confidential activities. This was Acosta's testimony, not a court finding.
She described four quarterly ₱125 million cash advances. Acosta said she released the fourth-quarter 2022 amount in full to Lachica, while later quarterly releases were made in tranches based on his object-of-expenditure requests and, after an initial release, a fund-utilization report and another object-of-expenditure document.
Acosta testified that her liquidation work relied on documents Lachica supplied after implementing the activities because she was not on the ground and lacked access to security information. She said the file used acknowledgement receipts; when some had no date or name, she accepted Lachica's explanation that the transactions were sensitive and confidential.
The examination also addressed the internal object-of-expenditures document on which Acosta had Lachica acknowledge receipt of ₱125 million, and her account that he later took it back after she completed liquidation using the documents he provided. She acknowledged that the four liquidation reports were initially submitted without all acknowledgement receipts, explaining that operations covered different locations and the reports faced deadlines.
Near the close, questioning returned to who disbursed money to the ultimate recipients. Acosta said she did not know the on-the-ground details; after further questions, she agreed that Lachica disbursed money during implementation while maintaining that she had disbursed it to him as special disbursing officer.