Sara Duterte trial: After ‘unusual’ encashments, where did the confidential funds go?

MANILA, Philippines – After establishing how, in over six months, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) encashed P612.5 million in confidential funds, the prosecution panel in her impeachment trial opened on Monday, August 3, a new chapter and asked a new question: Were those funds spent on the right things? From around 10 am to a few minutes shy of 2:30 pm, veteran lawyer Lorna Kapunan, private counsel for the House prosecution panel, probed state auditor Roderick Wamil over what the Commission on Audit (COA) had earlier flagged as shortcomings in how the OVP spent its confidential funds in the final quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. Kapunan and the prosecution are expected to tackle the last two quarters — the second and third of 2023 — when Duterte had access to confidential funds on Tuesday, August 4. Wamil, who, by his own admission, felt “anxious” over having to testify before the impeachment court, was part of COA Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO) from September 2014 to February 2024, a decade that spanned three vice presidents and several education chiefs. Under Kapunan’s prodding, Wamil put on record that it was only under Duterte that his office audited the OVP and DepEd, since predecessors former vice presidents Jejomar Binay and Leni Robredo, as well as previous education secretaries, had not been given access to confidential funds. Confidential and Intelligence funds are covered under Joint Circular No. 2015-01, which sets limits on how they can be used and how they are then audited by COA. While the specifics of the funds’ use are not public, owing to their nature — for programs that touch on national security — the joint circular spells out the requirements agencies must adhere to in liquidating their use. “Strict compliance” with the joint circular’s use was the bare minimum. “What is involved is public funds, so we have to be strict on [the implementation of] rules to prevent misuse of funds,” Wamil told Kapunan in a mix of English and Filipino. COA’s ICFAO, based on Wamil’s testimony, found the OVP falling short of “strict compliance| in auditing millions of confidential funds in the last three months of 2022 and the first three months of 2023. Fifteen boxes that contained documents related to Duterte’s confidential funds — explicitly and literally labeled as such — lined the tables of the prosecution. More boxes surrounded Wamil as he sat on the witness seat. The first article of impeachment is related to Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential funds — over P500 million under OVP and P112.5 million under DepEd. Commission on Audit auditor Roderick Wamil testifies during the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on August 3, 2026. Not the speed, but the direction In briefings throughout the day, spokespeople for the prosecution panel made it a point to highlight that they were not just questioning the speed at which money was used but also where it went. Based on documents submitted by the OVP to COA itself, P125 million in the last quarter of 2022 was used up in just 11 days. “‘Yung question dito is napatunayan ba ng OVP na itong P125 million, nagamit nila para sa mga allowed purposes under the joint circular? Napunta ba ito sa mga intended recipients, supposedly? Malaki siyang katanungan: Paano mo naubos ang P125 million in 11 days?” said prosecution legal spokesperson lawyer Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr. in a midday briefing with reporters. (The question here is if the OVP has proven that the P125 million was used for allowed purposes under the joint circular. Did the money go to the supposed intended recipients? It’s a big question: How did you use up P125 million in 11 days?) Kabataan Representative Renee Co, another of the prosecution’s spokespeople, said there was also a question of the “physical impossibility” of spending that huge an amount — in accordance with the joint circular — within 11 days. But in an hours-long trial of asking Wamil to go through specific provisions of the joint circular and explaining the painstaking process through which CAO’s ICFAO audited the OVP’s funds, it was the presentation of familiar names that sparked excitement — and elicited more than a few laughs — from even the crowd inside the plenary hall. Commission on Audit auditor Roderick Wamil testifies during the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on August 3, 2026. One by one, Kapunan asked Wamil to verify and comment on acknowledgement receipts, covering amounts ranging from P70,000 to P295,000, issued by supposed recipients of the OVP’s intelligence funds: Mary Grace Piattos Renan Piattos Nova Santos Mico Harina Janice Marie Revilla Patty Ting Andy Lim Alejandro Pikit Feonna Biong Sisfrunio Balsac Gabriel Bisaya Kapunan quipped more than once in her direct, lightly poking fun at the names Andy Lim (a homophone for the Filipino phrase “ang dilim,” which literally means “very dark”) and Alejandro Pikit (pikit means eyes closed in Filipino). Her levity in asking questions prompted Duterte’s counsel, Michael Poa, to object because she was supposedly putting “color” into the names of the supposed recipients. Presiding officer Senator Francis Escudero chided Kapunan, reminding the veteran lawyer that she understood what Poa meant in his objection. Of the names in the list, only Revilla, Ting, and Biong were issued in December 2022, or within the timeframe the joint circular necessitated. The rest were issued a whole year later, in December 2023, and at least one in November 2023 — even before confidential funds for Duterte’s OVP were even released. House prosecutor Joel Chua, answering questions from reporters after the trial, said the point of presenting the acknowledgment receipts — including the names Kapunan poked fun at — was not yet about alleging that these persons were fictitious but to flag that it was those documents, among others, that then prompted COA to issue an audit observation memo that formally flagged these deficiencies. Before the impeachment court suspended session, Wamil flagged for the first quarter of 2023 what COA had also flagged for the final quarter of 2022 — that the OVP was lacking in paperwork, making it difficult for COA to even ascertain that funds were used properly. Under the joint circular, the OVP ought to have declared their planned activities and projects, where the confidential funds would be used, through a “physical and financial plan.” The plan should also include targets they declare themselves. The OVP did not provide specifics in its submission to COA of that “physical and financial plan,” Wamil said. Wamil’s disclosures are nothing new. It was investigations in the House of Representatives that first made public — and the thing of viral memes — the likes of Mary Grace Piattos. The COA had also earlier ordered the OVP to return P73 million of its confidential funds in 2022 and P375 million of the same funds for 2023 for apparent violations of that same joint circular. But for the prosecution’s lawyers and various talking heads, it’s a tale that needs to be retold as part of a larger narrative — that there was “effort and [an attempt] to really misuse and misappropriate” the confidential funds allocated to Duterte in the last quarter of 2022 alone, according to Zia Alonto Adiong. “Ibig sabihin, kung titingnan natin ‘yung pag-encash nito na unusual, na madaliang na-encash, madalian talaga ‘yung paggastos nito. Dahil madalian, hindi tugma-tugma ‘yung dates at hindi tama ‘yung kanilang binigay na documentary evidence to prove that the confidential funds [were] used [properly],” said Adiong. (It means we are looking at unusual encashment of the confidential funds, a hasty encashment, hasty spending. Because they were in such a rush, the dates and documentary evidence to prove that the funds were used properly don’t add up.) Another COA official, Celine May del Campo, is expected to be the next witness for the same article, following Wamil’s testimony. – Rappler.com