State auditor confirms OVP’s disallowed confidential expenses
MindaNews / 11 August 2026 – The Commission on Audit (COA) sent a notice of disallowance to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for its P73 million in confidential funds, a witness from the agency confirmed Tuesday.
Xylene Mae Del Campo, state auditor of the COA’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (COA-ICFAO) testified before the Senate impeachment court Tuesday that the disallowed amount covers P69.5 million the payment of rewards for which the OVP only submitted acknowledgment receipts.
The remaining P3.5 million covers items that were not enumerated under Joint Circular 2015-01 such as furniture and computers, del Campo said.
She said the purchases are not covered by invoices or official receipts which are required.
The OVP appealed the disallowance but COA in April this year affirmed it. The OVP filed a motion for reconsideration in May, which is still pending.
Upon questioning by private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan, del Campo testified that based on the Protective Intelligence Operations Reports, Vice President Sara Duterte’s engagements from the first to the third quarter of 2023 were attendance in commencement exercises, tree planting activities, courtesy visits and coordination meetings.
She said these purposes are not compliant with the joint circular, and there is nothing in the accomplishment reports that would warrant the payment of rewards.
“Itong tree-planting… Napakadaming Christmas party, napakadaming awards ceremony. Yan ba pinapayagan sa confidential funds?” Kapunan asked.
“Hindi po (No),” the witness replied.
Del Campo said the OVP attached a list of its 105 activities from December 13 to 31, 2022, but pointed out that the document is not compliant with the joint circular for failing to prove the success of information gathering.
She also testified that the activities on December 13, 15, 17, and 18 are not under the period of utilization of the cash advance covering the period December 21-31, 2022.
Replying to a question from Senator-judge and presiding officer Francis Escudero if expenses were made even before the checks were encashed, del Campo said the document showed that funds were used before the cash advance was issued. She said the joint circular does not allow the use of confidential funds for reimbursement.
Del Campo further testified that the findings raised by the COA with the OVP when it issued its audit observation memorandum included the following: absence of attachments documented evidence of payments in the liquidation documents; absence of documents evidencing success of information-gathering to support rewards payments; the physical and financial plan of the OVP didn’t specify the specific confidential activities; and, unsigned disbursement voucher showing the receipt for cash advance.
‘Ghosted’
Earlier, before del Campo was back on the witness stand for a continuation of her testimony, Kapunan made a manifestation that the defense did not show up last Thursday for a meeting to compare documents.
“Na-indian po kami,” Kapunan said.
“The text message is even more disturbing… they even disclaimed the fact this court said Thursday or Friday last week. Wala naman daw sinabi yung presiding officer except to set a mutually agreed upon time.
“That is bad faith, your honor,” Kapunan told Escudero.
She added the “attitude” of the defense counsels goes back to the pre-trial when they refused to stipulate because of a different cover page for the documents.
Defense counsel Kristine Ferrer said they could meet Friday this week, but Kapunan said it was clear that the agreement was to meet either Thursday or Friday last week.
“The authenticity of the exhibits is something that the court will have to decide. And the court will only decide on that after the prosecution has already submitted their offer of evidence and that will be subject to our comment. And there’s no need for us to actually compare the exhibits just so we can arrive at a stipulation that this and that are the same,” Ferrer said.
With regard to the identification of the witness of the exhibits, that goes into the witness’ competence. We did not stipulate here in open court that the witness is competent to identify the exhibits, your honor, kasi hindi naman ho namin kilala ‘yung taga-COA. Pangalawa, we don’t know the extent of her examination of the documents, pangatlo she just assumed the work of Mr. Wamil,” she added.
Escudero asked the two parties that instead of scheduling another meeting they should submit the documents for comparison to the court so the senator-judges can review the exhibits themselves.
Escudero told Kapunan in jest: Chair would like to correct. Hindi ka, Atty. Lorna, inindian. Baka ghinost ka kasi ‘di ka sinagot eh.” (H. Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews)
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