MANILA — The impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte will turn to the audit of PHP612.5 million in confidential funds this week as Commission on Audit (COA) witnesses testify on how the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) accounted for the money.
Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre said Sunday that the prosecution will shift its focus from tracing the movement of the funds to determining whether the money was spent and liquidated according to government rules.
“The next witnesses will come from the COA. They will explain how the confidential funds were audited and how the liquidation was reviewed. They will also discuss whether the supporting documents complied with the rules governing confidential and intelligence funds,” Acidre said in a news release.
Former COA state auditor Roderick Wamil and incumbent Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office Supervising Auditor Celine May Del Campo will testify first. House of Representatives Legislative Information Resources Management Department Director Marivic Pareja is also expected to testify later in the week.
The prosecution’s audit-phase witnesses will follow former Land Bank of the Philippines managers Violeta Constantino and Nenita Camposano, who testified during the opening presentation on Article I last week.
Acidre said Constantino and Camposano established that the PHP612.5 million came from public funds released by the National Treasury and that officials withdrew the entire amount in cash through seven Treasury checks.
“Primarily, it was proven that the fund came from public funds. Secondly, it was proven to have been withdrawn in cold cash,” Acidre said.
Constantino testified that four Treasury checks worth PHP125 million each, totaling PHP500 million, were encashed for the OVP in December 2022 and February, April and July 2023. Special Disbursing Officer Gina Acosta encashed the checks while Assistant Secretary Lemuel Ortonio accompanied her.
Camposano testified that three Treasury checks worth PHP37.5 million each, totaling PHP112.5 million, were encashed for DepEd in February, April and July 2023. Special Disbursing Officer Edward Fajarda encashed the checks while Duterte served as education secretary.
Acidre said the testimony also drew questions from senator-judges about the nature of the transactions.
Article I of the impeachment complaint accuses Duterte of misusing PHP612.5 million in confidential funds allocated to the OVP and DepEd from 2022 to 2023.
The prosecution will now present evidence on how officials accounted for the funds after withdrawing them from the bank.
The former COA auditors are also expected to discuss the commission’s directive ordering the OVP to return PHP73.287 million in confidential funds released in 2022.
A 2024 House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability inquiry previously uncovered alleged irregularities in the liquidation of the confidential funds. These included acknowledgment receipts that allegedly carried fictitious names such as “Mary Grace Piattos,” “Milky Secuya” and “Kokoy Villamin.”
Certifications from the Philippine Statistics Authority and findings from the National Bureau of Investigation presented during the inquiry indicated that many purported recipients had no matching birth records. Investigators also said several signatures on acknowledgment receipts appeared to have come from the same person.
Duterte has denied allegations of wrongdoing surrounding the use of confidential funds.
