Sara-led DepEd spent P82.3M in less than a year to curb terrorism recruitment for teachers, students but produced no evidence—witness
Text size
Vice President Sara Duterte spent nearly P30 million in seven months in 2023 during her stint as secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd) to deter the recruitment of teachers and students to terrorist groups, but did not produce any documents proving that the funds were ultimately used for counter-insurgency efforts.
The findings formed part of the testimony of Commission on Audit (COA) auditor Roderick Wamil on the 12th day of the impeachment trial of Duterte on Tuesday, marking his second appearance as a witness for the prosecution on alleged irregularities and misuse of the confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) under Article 1.
Prosecution counsel Lorna Kapunan posed several questions to Wamil, including whether the DepEd provided lists of teachers, students, or communist and leftist groups that evidenced the success of counter-insurgency programs for which the DepEd used its CIF.
Wamil responded, “They did not submit any.”
The DepEd received a quarterly allocation of CIF amounting to P37.5 million in 2023, totaling P112.5 million. The first covered 20 February to 30 March, followed by 20 April to 29 June, and lastly 12 July to 29 September.
Of the total P112.5 million, P27.9 million was spent on the counter-emergency program, which DepEd received in three tranches.
The first tranche accounted for P9.4 million, the second for P9.3 million, and the third for P9.2 million.
Kapunan presented three physical and financial plans of the DepEd, all of which were approved by Duterte, as attested by Wamil, who audited the agency's CIF spending as well as that of the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
VP Duterte concurrently served as education secretary from June 2022 until her resignation in June 2024.
The physical and financial plans outlined an agency’s expected operational targets and their corresponding allocations broken down by specific time periods.
However, Wamil told the Senate impeachment court that the documents in question contained no evidence to show that the CIF was indeed used for counter-insurgency operations.
“Based on this document for the counter-insurgency program, the expected outcome is to prevent any recruitment by the NPA (New People’s Army) and other communist and leftist groups towards teachers and students,” Wamil averred, adding that the DepEd did not enumerate specific confidential activities in the physical and financial plans for which the CIF was intended.
The P27.9 million for counter-insurgency was on top of P27.2 million that the DepEd reportedly spent on similar operations or anti-extremism and terrorism programs to gather information and intensify background investigations of DepEd personnel and learners allegedly involved in terrorist groups.
Similarly, the DepEd launched anti-illegal activities operations to heighten surveillance within the department, with the aim of eradicating illicit activities in schools. The program was allocated over P27.2 million and was also spent in three quarters.
The two programs also lack documents proving the success of the activities.
The lion’s share of the DepEd’s CIF, amounting to P30.2 million, was allegedly utilized for abuse prevention and control within public schools, yet no supporting evidence, such as lists of schools or specific abuse cases, was submitted to the COA for audit.
The lack of supporting documents for these activities, according to Wamil, was a clear violation of the Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2015-01 governing the use of CIF.
The JMC, according to the auditor, mandates that all requests for and allocations of CIF must clearly specify the program and activity, among others, to allow for proper audit and verification.
Another clear case of non-compliance by the DepEd under Duterte’s tenure was the approval of cash advances by an undersecretary rather than the head of the agency.
Wamil oversaw the auditing of the P612.5 million in CIF allocated to the OVP (P500 million) and the DepEd (P112.5 million) from the last quarter of 2022 to 2023 as an intelligence and confidential funds audit office (ICFAO) auditor before he was appointed as audit team leader of COA-Pasay in February 2024.
During a cross-examination by Kapunan on Tuesday, Wamil also revealed that he was called to a meeting in September 2023 with OVP Chief of Staff Zuleika Lopez and then DepEd Chief of Staff Michael Poa, now part of Duterte’s defense lawyers, among others, to discuss the liquidation process of CIF.
Wamil recalled that Lopez and Poa asked him to issue an “audit query” instead of the mandatory audit observation memorandum (AOM) if there were any findings regarding the OVP and DepEd’s use of CIF.
However, Wamil said he followed the JMC rules, which require that audit findings necessitate a formal AOM.
The COA typically issues an AOM to state agencies to address financial or operational deficiencies found during an audit, such as accounting errors, weaknesses, or missing papers, and to request explanations or missing documents from the flagged department within a specified period.
