MANILA, Philippines — A former Commission on Audit (COA) official on Wednesday said that existing government guidelines were "silent" on whether the use of aliases in the receipt of confidential funds was allowed or not.
During the 13th day of the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, Senator-judge Bam Aquino asked Roderick Wamil, a former state auditor of the COA-Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office, whether COA permitted the use of codenames or aliases for recipients of confidential funds.
"Based on the provisions of the joint circular, it is neither allowed nor prohibited since the joint circular is silent as to that,” Wamil replied.
He also explained that COA's audit was document-based and auditors have no way of determining from submitted documents whether a name was an alias or a real identity.
Wamil was referring to the 2015-01 joint circular of the COA, Department of Budget and Management, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Governance Commission for GOCCs, and Department of National Defense, which details the guidelines on the entitlement, release, use, reporting, and audit of confidential and/or intelligence funds.
Senator-Judge Erwin Tulfo later sought clarification, asking whether the absence of a specific prohibition in the joint circular meant that aliases were effectively allowed.
"No, Your Honor. It is neither allowed nor prohibited,” Wamil responded.
Tulfo also asked whether COA required the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to disclose the real identities of recipients of confidential funds during its audit.
Wamil said the audit focused solely on compliance with the joint circular's provisions.
"Our audit focuses on compliance. So, we use the provisions of the circular as the basis for our audit," he said.
The issue stems from acknowledgment receipts covering the release of P125 million in confidential funds of the OVP in the final days of December 2022, which listed names such as "Mary Grace Piattos."
Other names that appeared in the receipts included Mico Harina, Nova Santos, Patty Ting, Andy Lim, Alejandro Pikit, and Feonna Biong, among others.
