A Commission on Audit (COA) auditor told the Senate impeachment court on Monday that Vice President Sara Duterte was the only vice president and Department of Education (DepEd) secretary whose confidential funds he audited during his assignment with the commission’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO).
State auditor Roderick Wamil, now an audit team leader at the COA Pasay office, testified that he served with the ICFAO from September 2014 to February 2024, covering the terms of former Vice Presidents Jejomar Binay, Leni Robredo, and Duterte.
During that period, Wamil said only Duterte’s Office of the Vice President (OVP) received confidential fund allocations.
“Tanging si Vice President Sara Duterte lang po ‘yung aking na-audit na may confidential fund,” Wamil said during direct examination by private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan.
He said neither Binay nor Robredo received confidential fund appropriations while he was assigned to the ICFAO.
“Tanging si Vice President Sara Duterte lang po yung nagkaroon ng appropriation for the confidential funds,” he added.
Wamil likewise testified that Duterte was the only DepEd secretary whose confidential fund allocation he audited.
“Dahil siya lang po ‘yung naging DepEd Secretary na nagkaroon ng confidential funds ang DepEd,” he said.
He identified former education secretaries Armin Luistro and Leonor Briones as the other DepEd chiefs who served during his time at the ICFAO.
The auditor said he examined P500 million in confidential funds released to the OVP from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023.
He also audited P112.5 million in confidential funds released to DepEd during the first three quarters of 2023.
Wamil told senator-judges that confidential funds require strict compliance with accounting and auditing rules because they involve public funds and carry risks of misuse.
“We follow strict compliance since what is involved ay public funds, so dapat strict ’yung accounting and auditing rules to prevent the misuse of funds,” he said.
He explained that the COA ICFAO conducts compliance post-audits, which review whether disbursed funds were supported by required documents and complied with existing laws and regulations.
Wamil identified Joint Circular No. 2015-01 as the primary guideline used by the ICFAO in auditing confidential and intelligence funds.
The circular, issued by the COA, Department of Budget and Management, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of National Defense, and the Governance Commission for Government-Owned or Controlled Corporations, requires strict internal controls over the use of such funds.
The guideline limits confidential fund spending to activities such as gathering information related to national security and peace and order, renting vehicles for confidential operations, maintaining safe houses, purchasing supplies and equipment for confidential activities, and providing rewards to qualified informants.
Wamil said rewards for informants must have the approval of the agency head, supporting documents proving successful information gathering or surveillance, and a clear connection to a specific confidential activity.
He also cited restrictions under the circular that prohibit the use of confidential funds for salaries, wages, overtime pay, additional compensation, allowances, fringe benefits, representation expenses, consultancy services, entertainment expenses, and construction or acquisition of buildings and housing facilities.
The prosecution presented Wamil to identify and authenticate COA audit records covering Duterte’s P500 million OVP confidential funds and P112.5 million DepEd confidential funds.
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