COA auditor’s testimony contradicts VP Sara’s statement in 2024 press conference
MindaNews / 4 August 2026 – The testimony Tuesday of Roderick Wamil, former state auditor of the Commission on Audit (COA) – Intelligence and Confidential Funds Office, on the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) contradicted a statement made by Vice President Sara Duterte during a press conference in 2004.
Under questioning by Lorna Kapunan, counsel for the prosecution panel, Wamil identified as Duterte’s the signature below the printed line “Certified: expenses necessary, lawful and incurred under my direct supervision” in three OVP disbursement vouchers dated January 31, 2023, April 10, 2023 and July 13, 2023.
He said the signature on the vouchers match the specimen of the document signatories submitted by the OVP.
He also identified Duterte’s signature on three liquidation reports certifying that the purpose of the cash advance was duly accomplished.
During a press conference on December 11, 2023, Duterte refused to explain why the acknowledgment receipts for confidential funds bore names of individuals whom the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said are nonexistent.
“I will not give an explanation because it will entail that I explain intelligence operations, which will compromise offices who do intelligence operations,” she said at that time.
Duterte also denied having a hand in the preparation of these acknowledgment receipts. “I had nothing to do with the preparation of ARs. That went down to the grassroots level. I was up here in the structure and money went down for information.”
In that same month, the PSA confirmed that 405 out of 677 “recipients” of the confidential funds were either nonexistent or had no birth certificates.
Wamil also testified the OVP did not attach documents proving payments for medical or food aid for the period February 6 to March 29, 2023, and P40 million for the period April 25 to June 30, 2023.
He confirmed that the total for the two quarters is P82 million based on documents from the OVP, which he said had no attached payment documents for medical or food supplies.
He said COA’s audit observation memorandum flagged these items as these are not included under the joint circular on the use of confidential funds.
Wamil was referring to Joint Circular No. 2015-01 signed by COA, the Department of Budget and Management, Department of Defense, Department of the Interior and Local Governments, and the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations.
Reiterating his testimony on Monday, Wamil said the audit observation memorandum found the OVP’s physical and financial plan violated the joint circular for not specifying the confidential activities the fund would be spent on.
Item 4.2 of the joint circular requires every allocation for confidential funds to be backed by a physical and financial plan stating the amount proposed for each program and activity as a basis for the disbursement of the funds. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews)
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