Davao City's confidential expenses that ballooned to P2.697 billion during Vice President Sara Duterte's stint as mayor should be probed by the Commission on Audit, a lawmaker said Monday.

The call for investigation was prompted by the 2022 report of the CoA, which found that Davao City spent P2.697 billion on confidential expenses between 2016 to 2022, or an average of PP385.3 million per year over the preceding six years.

Duterte served as the Davao City mayor from 2016 to 2022 before she assumed the VP post in July of last year.

Based on CoA findings, Davao City incurred P144 million of confidential expenses in 2016, which was more than doubled to P293 million in 2017 and further climbed to P420 million in 2018.

The city's confidential fund expenses further grew to P460 million in 2019 and were maintained consistently for the subsequent years of 2020, 2021, and 2022.

In an interview on Monday, ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro, who sought the CoA probe, stressed that the P2.697 billion totality of confidential expenses of Davao City in the previous six years "could have been utilized more effectively to benefit the education sector, specifically by providing much-needed support to teachers."

"We were shocked also [by] the report of the CoA. With this controversy of confidential funds, we are thinking of asking the CoA to investigate," she said. "The CoA should file an audit observation memo and then ask them to explain maybe the misuse of funds and then file necessary legal action."

She added, "Imagine more than a million a day spent for the confidential funds in a city. I just wonder how it was spent and where it was spent. So, we want the CoA to review if the city government of Davao City led by Vice President Sara Duterte by then really followed the guidelines or the joint circular 2015-01."

The said joint circular outlined by CoA with the Departments of Budget and Management, National Defense, and of the Interior and Local Government, and Governance Commission for GOCCs, contains guidelines on the entitlement, release, use, reporting, and audit of confidential and intelligence funds that are in the General Appropriations Act.

Daily Tribune has been asking for Duterte's comment, but she remained mum on the issue.

While Castro admitted that the local government units are entitled to confidential funds for peace and order maintenance, it was "ironic" that Duterte sought allocation of such funds given that she claimed Davao City was "very peaceful, disciplined, and well" during her tenure.

"So why is it necessary to have an increasingly confidential fund?" the lawmaker stressed, noting such a fund should be used for other fruitful endeavors.

"I remember the time the teachers of Davao City were asking for city allowance, but she did not grant it. Instead, she refused and even got mad with ACT (Alliance of Concerned Teachers) during that time," Castro pointed out.

While none in the law limits the amount of confidential funds, the militant lawmaker pointed out that it should be rationalized.

A proposed law aimed at imposing a cap and limit on confidential funds, streamlining the allocation of such that would promote transparency and accountability, is currently being crafted, according to Castro.

It will be filed in Congress when the session resumes in November.