Former state auditor Roderick Wamil testified that the Office of the Vice President and DepEd were the only agencies he audited that used acknowledgment receipts instead of official receipts for confidential funds. He detailed expenditures like medicines, which are not allowed under joint circular, and stated that P73 million in confidential funds were disallowed by COA and should be returned.
In a dramatic development at the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, a former state auditor testified on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, that the confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) handled by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte's watch were unique in his decade-long auditing career.
Roderick Wamil, who previously served at the Commission on Audit's Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (COA-ICFAO), appeared as a witness for the House prosecution panel. He told the Senate impeachment court that among the 30 government agencies he audited over a ten-year period, only the OVP and DepEd under Duterte submitted acknowledgment receipts (ARs) as supporting documents for their confidential fund expenditures, instead of the standard official receipts (ORs) or sales invoices.
Senator-judge Francis Pangilinan asked Wamil whether submitting only ARs was a common practice among agencies when liquidating their CIF. Wamil firmly answered no, explaining that all other agencies he audited presented either ORs or sales invoices as documentary evidence. He underscored that ORs and sales invoices are essential to trace whether the funds were genuinely used for their intended purposes. Without these documents, auditors cannot verify the legitimacy of the expenses.
'If official receipts or sales invoices had actually been submitted to us, we could have determined, for example, that the funds were used to purchase medicines. But since only acknowledgment receipts were submitted, we could not make that determination,' Wamil said in Filipino. The testimony laid out detailed expenditure reports from the OVP that raised red flags.
For the period covering December 21 to 31, 2022, the OVP reported spending P34.857 million out of its P125 million confidential fund on various goods. This included P24.93 million for medicines, P11.813 million for supplies, P500,000 for tables and chairs, and P3 million for desktop computers and printers. The Commission on Audit disallowed P73 million of these confidential funds due to insufficient documentary evidence.
Wamil stated that the OVP should return the disallowed amount to the national treasury, though he acknowledged that the decision is still appealable before the Supreme Court. He also pointed to a provision under Joint Circular 2015-01, issued by COA, the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Governance Commission for GOCCs, and the Department of National Defense, which states that failure to liquidate public funds shall be prima facie evidence that the official has put such missing funds or property to personal use and benefit.
The auditor further detailed the OVP's confidential fund utilization reports for the first, second, and third quarters of 2023. In the first quarter, the OVP allocated P10 million for the purchase of information, P15 million for rewards, P16 million for rentals and incidental expenses related to safe houses, P32 million for supplies, P42 million for medical and food aid, and P10 million for incentives or travel related to confidential operations.
From April to July 2023, the OVP spent P12 million each on information purchases and rewards, P16 million on safe house rentals, P35 million on supplies, P40 million on medical and food aid, and P10 million on incentives or travel. In the third quarter of 2023, the OVP reported using P20 million to purchase information to uncover safety and security threats, P35 million for rewards to informants of surveillance and monitoring activities, P5 million for safe house rentals, P50 million for surveillance supplies, and P15 million for rental of transport vehicles related to surveillance operations.
Wamil also flagged that spending confidential funds on medicines was not permissible, as it did not fall under the list of allowed purposes specified in Joint Circular 2015-01. He noted that the OVP failed to submit a report on the success of the surveillance operations it conducted using the confidential funds, further complicating the audit. The testimony has become a focal point in the impeachment proceedings, with prosecutors arguing that the irregularities demonstrate a pattern of misuse of public funds.
Defense lawyers, however, are expected to challenge the credibility and conclusions of the auditor, and the trial continues to draw national attention as it unfolds before the Senate
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