Vice President Sara Duterte and two of her aides were identified as being potentially responsible for the P73.3 million in disallowed transactions by the Commission on Audit (CoA) over non-compliance with the rules governing the use of confidential and intelligence funds (CIF), a state auditor turned witness told the Senate impeachment court Tuesday.

impeachment court Tuesday.

The amount in question was part of the P125 million in CIF allegedly spent by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) over roughly 11 days from 21 to 31 December 2022.

State auditors flagged the spending for violating Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2015-01, resulting in the issuance of a notice of disallowance (ND) ordering the OVP to return the P73.3 million to the government coffers.

“The persons liable or responsible [are] first, the head of agency, Vice President Sara Duterte, the special disbursing officer, Miss Gina Acosta, and the chief accountant, Miss Julieta Villadelrey,” CoA auditor Xylene Mae del Campo said, adding that they had a direct participation in the utilization of the flagged transaction.

As head of the OVP, Duterte was primarily responsible for approving the use of confidential expenses, which are now subject to the CoA notice of disallowance.

The CoA only issues an ND for “irregular/unnecessary/excessive and extravagant” transactions, as well as those considered illegal and unconscionable.

As for Villadelrey, she may be held liable for certifying that the liquidation reports and supporting documents for the use of the P73.3 million were complete, proper, and compliant with the JMC, despite evidence to the contrary.

The same applied to Acosta, since she acted as the payee responsible for withdrawing the OVP’s CIF and disbursing it.

Del Campo was the second witness presented by the prosecution to testify on Article 1, which centers on the alleged misuse of P612.5 million in CIF received by the OVP (P500 million) and the Department of Education (DepEd) that was reportedly spent from late December 2022 to September 2023, or roughly 10 months.

Duterte concurrently headed the DepEd from June 2022 until she stepped down in June 2024 amid deepening tensions with the Marcos administration.

CIF for tree-planting, Christmas party

Del Ocampo was called to testify as a key witness because of her direct knowledge of the two agencies’ confidential expenses, having supervised the post-audits.

She took over the auditing duties from then CoA’s Intelligence and Confidential Fund Audit Office (ICFAO) auditor, Roderick Wamil, after the latter was reassigned to the CoA-Pasay office in February 2024.

The liquidation of confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) must strictly comply with the JMC, which requires the submission of liquidation reports, bank checks, obligation requests, accomplishment reports, and other supporting documents to the CoA.

Wamil earlier testified that the OVP did not comply with the requirements.

As the new ICFAO auditor, Del Campo led the evaluation of the OVP’s response to the audit observation memorandum (AOM) and the ND issued by the CoA in December 2022.

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.

According to Del Campo, the spending was flagged because it was used for activities or projects unrelated to the confidential and intelligence operations for which the funds were intended — a clear violation of the JMC.

These included tree-plantings, gift-giving, a youth campaign, a Christmas party, consultation meetings with barangay officials and PWDs, TNVS rides, and food orders through delivery riders, among others.

Confidential activities

Del Campo said some of the 105 activities submitted by the OVP to the CoA as evidence of the success of the supposed information and surveillance gathering for the P125 million in CIF were conducted even before the agency withdrew the cash.

The prosecution evidence showed that some of the OVP’s listed activities were dated 13 to 19 December 2022, despite the OVP only encashing its confidential funds on 20 December that year.

Del Campo told the impeachment court that activities covering that period “were not covered by the period of utilization as stated in OVP’s accomplishment report.”

The list of activities was attached to the OVP’s response dated 13 March 2024 to the CoA’s notice of suspension (NS) which directed the agency to submit relevant documents supporting how the confidential expenses were used up within 90 days.

An NS is issued when the spending is deemed “doubtful [of] legality/propriety/regularity” before the CoA issued an ND compelling the return of the funds.

CoA findings have shown that P69.8 million, or the lion’s share of the P73.3 million in disallowed spending, was spent on rewards for supposed surveillance operations. Of the P69.8 million, P10 million was in cash, P34.857 million in various goods, and P24.93 million in medicines.

The remaining P3.5 million was used to pay for chairs, desktop computers and printers.

Del Campo said the OVP filed a petition for review with the CoA on 5 February 2025, appealing the ND, though the commission proper dismissed this on 10 April, affirming the disallowance.

As a result, the OVP filed a motion for reconsideration in May of that year, and the CoA’s final ruling remains pending to date.