Auditor Flags Misuse of VP Office's Confidential Funds

MANILA, Philippines — Day 11 of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial was marked by the testimony of state auditor Roderick Wamil, who flagged discrepancies and non-compliance of Duterte’s office on the liquidation of confidential funds amounting to P500 million. Wamil, formerly with the Commission on Audit intelligence and confidential funds unit, testified before the Senate court on the failure of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to comply with COA regulations on the utilization and liquidation of the confidential funds. Among other things, he said P70,000 for medicine was given as a “reward” to “Mary Grace Piattos,” while other expenditures included food assistance and furniture without the official receipts for procurement. Under direct examination by private lawyer Lorna Kapunan, who is under the supervision of the House prosecutors, Wamil cited the OVP’s violation of Joint Circular 2015-01 providing guidelines for such utilization. Wamil mentioned the physical and financial plan approved by the OVP in December 2022 where he noted that the OVP did not indicate the specific confidential activities where it planned to use the funds. “That is not compliant with the Joint Circular because based on the first column of programs, activities and projects, the OVP didn’t indicate what specific confidential activities they will be using for the confidential funds as required under item 4.2 of the Joint Circular,” he said. Wamil also explained that the agency or office concerned must indicate the proposed amount allocated for each program and activity “because this will be the basis for the disbursement of their confidential funds.” “After the evaluation of those documents since I noted that the documents are not compliant with the requirements of the Joint Circular 2015-01, I drafted an audit observation memorandum which I submitted for review to my division chief,” Wamil said. A written notification to the accountable officers on issues found was also provided to the OVP, along with a notice directing them to submit their explanation. In the disbursement voucher dated Dec. 20 (2022), Wamil noted that the cash advance was for calendar year 2022 which is again not compliant with Joint Circular. He explained that the disbursement voucher must state the duration of the implementation of the project, but since this cash advance was for the fourth quarter of 2022 only, it was wrong to indicate that it was for calendar year 2022. In its liquidation report, Wamil said the OVP listed the period covered Dec. 21 to 31 (2022) but the cash advance was supposedly for the fourth quarter of 2022 only. For the utilization of confidential funds, Wamil said the specific activities must be enumerated by the OVP. The current COA official of Pasay City noted that some of the line items presented as confidential expenses were not among the allowable expenses enumerated in the Joint Circular. These include the provision of medical and food aid amounting to P40 million and the payment of incentives for travel relevant to confidential operations totaling P10 million. Wamil said there are exclusive and allowable items enumerated under the Joint Circular. Even for the supposed payment of rewards, he related no document was submitted “evidencing the success of the information gathering or surveillance activities on account of the information given by the informer as required under the Joint Circular.” Before trial adjourned yesterday, presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero said of the banks that were subpoe naed by the court to provide relevant bank documents of the Duterte couple, BDO Unibank and Security Bank requested for an additional period of 10 banking days until Aug. 13 to submit docu ments. Escudero said BDO requested for additional time to “achieve, compile, produce and submit” all account transactions, records, ledgers, journals, transactions logs, among others. Security Bank manifested that “due to the volume it was unable to complete the printing of documents” on Gen. Corp. Industries and Kalye 88 Foods Corp., two of the corporate entities linked to Duterte and her husband Manases Carpio, Escudero added. Escudero granted the requests of BDO and Security Bank. The prosecution was able to present a competent witness that helped lay the groundwork in the impeachment trial of the Vice President, a law professor said yesterday. In an interview with “Storycon” on One News, University of the Philippines College of Law associate dean Paolo Tamase said the prosecution was able to further establish its arguments on the alleged irregularities in the OVP’s use of confidential funds. He described Wamil as “quite competent” and an important witness for the prosecution. “The Commission on Audit is the central auditing agency of the government (and) they really know – in terms of both the rules and actual practice – how to detect potential, irregular, unfavorable transactions in government,” said Tamase, describing the impeachment trial as “much better than when it started. — Bella Cariaso, Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Janvic Mateo