TWO Commission on Audit (COA) auditors are scheduled to testify on alleged anomalies in Vice President Sara Duterte’s fund disbursements on Monday, the 11th day of her impeachment trial.
The Senate impeachment court granted the House prosecution’s request to summon former Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (Icfao) state auditor Roderick Wamil and Icfao Supervising Auditor Celine May Del Campo as its next witnesses.
Director Marivic Pareja of the House of Representatives’ Legislative Information Resources Management Department was also subpoenaed and is scheduled to testify after the two auditors.
Lead prosecutor Rep. Gerville Luistro said they would be shifting focus to tracing the movement of Duterte’s multimillion-peso confidential funds and examining as well how the expenditures were audited.
She said the prosecution has completed the phase of its case tracing the release and encashment of the P612.5 million in confidential funds.
“What we will be hearing next will be the audit process, including the findings and perhaps the notices of disallowance, and even the decision of COA, which sustained the notice of disallowance,” Luistro said.
She said the COA auditors are expected to explain how they examined the liquidation of the confidential funds, the deficiencies they found, and the basis for the notices of disallowance.
The prosecution earlier presented retired LandBank branch managers Violeta Constantino and Nenita Camposano, whose testimonies traced the encashment of Treasury checks totaling P612.5 million for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), formerly headed by Duterte.
Constantino testified that four Treasury checks worth P125 million each, totaling P500 million, were encashed for the OVP in December 2022 and in February, April and July 2023 by Special Disbursing Officer Gina Acosta, accompanied by Assistant Secretary Lemuel Ortonio.
Camposano, meanwhile, testified that three Treasury checks worth P37.5 million each, totaling P112.5 million, were encashed for DepEd by Special Disbursing Officer Edward Fajarda in February, April and July 2023, during Duterte’s tenure as DepEd secretary.
Article I of the impeachment complaint accuses Duterte of misusing P612.5 million in confidential funds received by the OVP and the DepEd during her tenure as education secretary.
The prosecution alleged that the confidential funds were supported by questionable liquidation documents, including acknowledgment receipts bearing names, such as “Mary Grace Piattos,” “Milky Secuya,” and “Kokoy Villamin,” as well as hundreds of other purported recipients who could not be matched with Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) records during the House investigation.
Prosecutors also contended that the funds were spent within unusually short periods, including P125 million in just 11 days, and that the COA later issued notices of disallowance directing the return of questioned expenditures.
House prosecution spokesman and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong on Sunday said the use of confidential funds remains subject to government audit.
In a radio interview, Adiong stressed that confidential and intelligence funds are governed by strict regulations and cannot be treated as discretionary spending or exempted from scrutiny by COA.
“Just because you withheld information — citing confidentiality or the security of your informants — and said, ‘Don’t ask about that’ or ‘You shouldn’t ask,’ you cannot say that to the COA,” he told DZBB in Filipino.
He said the amount involved warrants closer examination to determine whether the funds were used in accordance with rules and for their intended purpose.
“The bigger the amount, the deeper that the COA and the government also need to ask questions,” Adiong said.
One of the prosecution’s key issues is whether the disbursement of confidential funds complied with Joint Circular 2015-01, which governs the use, liquidation and reporting of confidential and intelligence funds.
He said the prosecution will present COA state auditors to explain why the acknowledgment receipts and supporting documents submitted by the OVP failed to comply with the joint circular, including requirements for validating confidential informants.
Adiong said the public also deserves to know what security or intelligence gains resulted from the P612.5 million in confidential fund spending. With PNA
