MANILA – House prosecutors said the testimony of a Commission on Audit (COA) auditor before the Senate impeachment court strengthened their case involving the alleged misuse of confidential funds by Vice President Sara Duterte.

At a press briefing, House trial spokesperson and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said the testimony of COA auditor Roderick Wamil highlighted several discrepancies and questioned transactions uncovered during the audit conducted by the Commission’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office on the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

Adiong said the OVP’s approved physical and financial plan was a key document because it should indicate how confidential funds would be utilized.

“Doon sa physical and financial plan, sabi ng COA hindi compliant dahil unang-una hindi specific at hindi particular kung anong confidential activities ang gagawin nila. Dahil doon ma-dedetermine mo ‘yung manner ng reward or purchase of reward doon sa activity na yun (In the physical and financial plan, the COA said it is not compliant because, first, their confidential activities were not particularly specified. Because you are supposed to determine there the manner of reward and purchase for that activity),” Adiong said.

He added that the OVP’s accomplishment report also lacked specific details that would justify the reported use of confidential funds based on the approved plan.

Adiong further said acknowledgment receipts submitted by the OVP were dated a year after the period covered by the liquidation report for the PHP125 million confidential fund, which was reportedly disbursed between Dec. 21 and 31, 2022.

“Ibig sabihin tapos na supposedly ang pagggamitan ng confidential funds (It means the time for using the confidential fund has already passed),” he said.

According to Wamil’s testimony, the OVP also failed to submit documentary evidence supporting the purchase of information, including payments to supposed informants, and instead presented acknowledgment receipts that COA did not recognize as sufficient documentation.

“Kung titignan natin, ‘yung pag-encash nito na unusual, na madalian in-encash, madalian talagang ginastos ito. Dahil madaliang ginastos, hindi tugma-tugma yung dates at hindi tama yung binigay nila mga (Looking at it, the unusual encashment in such a short time means the funds were hurriedly spent. Because it was hurriedly spent, the dates and other particulars were wrong in the documentary evidence they gave) to prove that the confidential funds were used in compliance with the joint circular ng COA,” Adiong said.

“Klaro yun. Yun na-establish natin talaga na meron talagang (That’s was clear. It was really established that there was really an) effort and attempt to really misuse or misappropriate the PHP125 million in confidential funds intended to be used for the last quarter of 2022,” he added.

House trial spokesperson and impeachment adviser Robert Ace Barbers also said Wamil’s testimony reinforced the prosecution’s allegations regarding the reported misuse of PHP612.5 million in confidential funds allocated to the OVP and the Department of Education.

Barbers said the testimony underscored that although confidential fund operations may be secret in nature, expenditures remain subject to government auditing and accounting rules.

“Government-allotted confidential funds may be confidential as to their purpose, but their utilization, transactions and liquidation must still comply with COA rules,” Barbers said.

According to Wamil, auditors found deficiencies in supporting documents covering portions of the confidential funds, including acknowledgment receipts and other liquidation records, and also examined the rapid liquidation of substantial fund releases.

He also testified that the accomplishment report submitted to COA bore Duterte’s signature under the words “Approved by.”

“It signifies that the signatory, or the Vice President, approved the contents of this accomplishment report,” Wamil said.

He further testified that the accomplishment report did not specify the confidential activities allegedly undertaken, making it difficult for auditors to determine whether the expenditures complied with Item 4.8 of COA-DBM Joint Circular No. 2015-01.

Barbers said the prosecution would continue presenting witnesses and documentary evidence before the Senate impeachment court.

The report noted that Vice President Duterte has denied wrongdoing and maintained that the confidential fund expenditures were lawful.

Meanwhile, House prosecutor and Manila Rep. Joel Chua said the prosecution is considering shortening its presentation of evidence on Article I of the impeachment complaint if it determines that the allegations have already been sufficiently established.

He said the prosecution used the same approach in presenting evidence for Article IV after concluding that fewer witnesses were enough to support the allegations.

“So dito siyempre, gumagawa rin tayo ng paraan na mapa-iksi yung presentasyon namin pero in the same manner na hindi magsa-suffer ‘yung bigat ng ebidensiya na ipi-presenta po namin (we are also making efforts to shorten the presentation of evidence, but, of course, in the same manner that the weight of evidence that we will present will not suffer),” Chua said.

“Kung makikita po namin na namin na pagkaraan ng ilang testigo, nakita ay supisyente na, nakuha na po namin yung result na gusto po namin at matibay na matibay na ang aming ebidensiya, eh maaaring piliin na lamang po namin yung mga ipe-presenta namin na testigo (If we see that the evidence is sufficient after just a few witnesses, or we have achieved very strong evidence, we can just choose who to present),” he added.

Chua said the prosecution hopes to complete the presentation of evidence for Article I within the month./PNA