COA Auditor: VP Sara Liable For P73 Million Disallowed Funds

The Commission on Audit (COA) deems Vice President Sara Duterte herself to be liable along with two others for P73.287 million in disallowed disbursements over just 11 days using the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

COA supervising auditor Xylene Mae del Campo, testifying as a prosecution witness, told the Senate impeachment court on Tuesday, Aug. 11, that the agency head bears responsibility for the utilization of confidential funds.

The defense has sought to distance Duterte from the questioned disbursements, instead pointing to the special disbursing officer (SDO) of the OVP as the one ultimately responsible.

Del Campo said the COA is also holding liable former SDO Gina Acosta and chief accountant Julieta Villadelrey of the OVP.

The COA issued the first Notice of Disallowance in November 2024, covering P73.287 million in confidential fund disbursements from Dec. 21 to 31, 2022 or just 11 days, Del Campo testified.

Of the amount, P69.787 million represented alleged reward payments that lacked sufficient documents showing successful information-gathering or surveillance activities.

Another P3.5 million was spent on tables and chairs, desktop computers and printers without proof that they were intended for confidential operations.

Del Campo said the OVP also failed to submit sales invoices or official receipts for the purchases.

The OVP had previously been ordered to return to the government P448.2 million in disallowed confidential funds.

“If we issue a Notice of Disallowance, we demand that the funds be returned to the government,” Del Campo said upon direct examination by private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan.

The COA-Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office officer said Duterte was among those to be held accountable for the disallowed funds as head of the OVP.

The P448.287 million represents the P73.287 million that were disallowed from the OVP’s P125-million confidential fund in December 2022 and P375 million in cash advances released during the first three quarters of 2023.

The OVP funds form part of the P612.5 million in confidential funds at the center of Article I of the impeachment case against Duterte.

House prosecutors have accused Duterte of misusing P500 million released to the OVP from December 2022 to September 2023 and another P112.5 million released to the Department of Education (DepEd) in 2023 when she was education secretary.

The COA Commission Proper affirmed the disallowance on April 10, 2026. The OVP filed a motion for reconsideration in May, which remains pending.

COA issued another Notice of Disallowance on March 31, 2026, covering the entire P375 million in confidential funds released to the OVP during the first three quarters of 2023.

Smorgasbord

Payments made by the OVP to purported informants using aliases were not limited to junk food but extended to a food bowl of names that included prominent ones in public service.

Upon direct examination from Kapunan, Del Campo showed the court recipients’ names in the OVP’s confidential fund liquidation.

Culled documents, in the form of acknowledgment receipts (ARs) submitted by the OVP to COA, have on various occasions showed that Duterte’s office paid P50,000 to “Miggy Mango,” P200,000 for “Jay Kamote” (sweet potato) and P250,000 under “Matthew Keso” (cheese).

Even the family names of the impeachment court’s presiding officer, Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, and his celebrity-spouse Heart Evangelista, were not spared, along with former human rights lawyer and now opposition congressman Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno of House Party-list Akbayan.

Political clans or dynasties like those of action-star-turned-politician Sen. Lito Lapid, as well now detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and the Revillas of Cavite, led by former senator Bong Revilla, were signatories to among the thousands of ARs.

A “Denise Tanya Escudero” received a P120,000 reward, as well as personalities under the names “Anne Ongpauco and Heart Santiago” – the legal surname of Escudero’s wife nicknamed “Heart,” respectively.

Other names included “Jose Diokno Jr.,” “Kristine Applegate Estrada” and “Clarisse Hontiveros,” “Beth Revilla” and “Diane Maple Lapid and John A. Lapid Jr.”

The alias “Mary Grace Piattos” stretched to “Pia Piattos-Lim,” who received P140,000, and “Renan Piatos” aside from “Nova Santos and Xiaome Ocho.”

Tipster “Ralph Josh Bacon’s” AR bore P150,000 in cash reward, which also included “Beverly Claire Pampano” (fish)” and “Salah Casim” (pork) in the food or kitchen department.

A separate list for alleged “medical and food aid” was paid to “Feonna Villegas” who received P500,000 and P250,000 for a certain Santiago.

These were all ARs allegedly for purchase of information or supplies and reward payments.

Ghosted

The prosecution served notice before the court on Tuesday that Duterte’s lawyers stood them up last week when they were supposed to meet and agree on common documents.

On Day 13 of the impeachment trial, private prosecutor Kapunan informed the senators about the “bad faith” of their counterparts who did not respond to their messages until the very last minute.

“Na-indian po kami,” said Kapunan in a local colloquial term that means being stood up on their request for an Aug. 6 or 7 meeting that was sanctioned by presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero.

Escudero, smiling, offered a more contemporary description: “You were not stood up, Lorna. Perhaps ghosted because there was no reply.”

New schedule?

To expedite the proceedings, the Senate court may move the trials to the afternoon to allow marathon hearings that will not be interrupted by the chamber’s regular legislative duties.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri made the proposal before the trial was adjourned yesterday, pointing out that morning schedules are halted to make way for afternoon legislative sessions.

He suggested moving regular legislative work to 10 a.m. and starting the impeachment trial at 3 p.m. instead. – With Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Neil Jayson Servallos