MindaNews / 3 August 2026 – The “physical and financial plan” of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) approved December 13, 2022 and signed by Vice President Sara Duterte did not comply with a joint circular requiring such a plan to indicate the actual use of the confidential funds, a Commission on Audit (COA) official told the Senate impeachment court Monday.
Roderick Wamil, former state auditor of the COA – Intelligence and Confidential Funds Office, was referring to Joint Circular No. 2015-01 signed by COA, the Department of Budget and Management, Department of Defense, Department of the Interior and Local Governments, and the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations.
Item 4.2 of the joint circular requires every allocation for confidential funds to be backed by a physical and financial plan stating the amount proposed for each program and activity as a basis for the disbursement of the funds.
Wamil, currently team leader at COA’s Pasig office, testified that the circular provides that confidential funds may only be spent on purchasing information relevant to national security and peace and order, renting vehicles and maintaining safe houses for confidential activities, renting or purchasing equipment for operations that cannot go through regular procurement, paying informers, and activities to prevent harm to agency personnel and property.
Upon questioning by Lorna Kapunan, counsel for the prosecution panel, Wamil said there were no attached documents attesting to the “success” of activities that would justify the OVP’s payment of rewards using its confidential funds.
Payment of rewards to informers requires “documents evidencing the success of the information gathering and/or surveillance activities on account of the information given by the informer,” and that it must be “directly related to the conduct of the specific confidential activities of authorized agencies,” according to the circular.
Kapunan showed Wamil acknowledgment receipts signed by “Mary Grace Piattos,” “Nova Santos” and “Mico P. Harina,” and asked him whether the receipts were a violation of the joint circular.
The witness testified there were no supporting documents to prove the success of their information-gathering activities that would support the payments as required by the circular.
Asked by Kapunan, Wamil confirmed that after he received an explanation from the OVP about the documents, COA issued a notice of suspension for non-compliance with the joint circular’s requirement to provide enough documents to prove that they “succeeded” in information-gathering activities using the confidential funds as payment to informers.
According to item 4.27 of COA Circular No. 2009-06, “Suspension is a temporary disallowance. It refers to transactions or accounts which appear illegal/improper/irregular unless satisfactorily explained or justified by the responsible officers or until the requirements on matters raised in the course of audit are submitted or complied with.”
Wamil further testified that he has audited the OVP since becoming the state auditor in 2014, and that it was only during Duterte’s time that the office had confidential funds. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews)
