Defense tells Court: Binay-era OVP received confidential Funds

The defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday presented a 2014 Department of Budget and Management (DBM) document before the Senate impeachment court in an effort to rebut testimony that she was the only vice president to receive confidential funds.

During the cross-examination, defense counsel Michael Poa introduced a Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) issued by the DBM in December 2014, which he said authorized confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) during the term of then Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Poa presented the document while questioning prosecution witness Roderick Wamil, a former Commission on Audit (COA) official who supervised the audit of the P612.5 million in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) released to the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) from late 2022 to 2023.

“We just wanted to put that on record because marami na rin pumalabas sa social media na si Vice President Sara Duterte lang ang vice president na nagkaroon ng confidential funds,” Poa told the impeachment court.

During his testimony on Monday, Wamil, who served as auditor of the Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO) from 2014 to 2024, told the court that the confidential fund allocations granted to the OVP and DepEd under Duterte were unprecedented in his experience.

“Since I assumed my post at the ICFAO in 2014, neither former Vice President Jejomar Binay nor former Vice President Leni Robredo had appropriations for confidential funds. Only Vice President Sara Duterte received an appropriation for confidential funds,” Wamil said in Filipino.

He likewise testified that the DepEd, which was headed by former education secretaries Armin Luistro and Leonor Briones during the administrations of Benigno Aquino III and Rodrigo Duterte, respectively, did not receive confidential fund appropriations during his years auditing the agency.

Wamil is the third witness presented by the prosecution under Article I of the Articles of Impeachment, which centers on the alleged misuse and irregular liquidation of confidential funds.

The OVP received P500 million in confidential funds through four quarterly releases of P125 million each between December 2022 and July 2023, while the DepEd received P112.5 million during Duterte's concurrent service as education secretary. Prosecutors have alleged that the first P125-million tranche released to the OVP in December 2022 was spent within 11 days.