Senator-judges grill witness on audit process

After two days on the witness stand in the Senate impeachment court, state auditor Roderick Wamil faced senators sitting as judges to clarify the government’s auditing process.

State auditor Roderick Wamil testifying again before the Senate impeachment court on Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential and intelligence funds. Photo by Voltaire Domingo/Senate Social Media.

Manuel Mogato | August 5, 2026

MANILA — After two days on the witness stand in the Senate impeachment court, testifying that Vice President Sara Duterte improperly liquidated intelligence and confidential funds, the state auditor faced senators sitting as judges to clarify the government’s auditing process.

Roderick Wamil told the court the Commission on Audit (COA) found deficiencies in the documents submitted by the vice president to justify how the intelligence and confidential funds were spent in 2022 and 2023. (Also read: Witness testifies Vice President did not properly spend her confidential and intelligence funds)

“There were no official receipts to support purchases,” Wamil said, adding that only “acknowledgement receipts (ARs) from people who were given money from the intelligence and confidential funds were attached.

As the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) failed to comply with the government’s auditing process, Wamil said he sent Duterte’s office an “auditing observation memorandum” (AOM), demanding compliance.

When Duterte’s office failed to respond, Wamil said he sent a “notice of suspension” (NS), ordering the OVP and DepEd to halt the disbursement of the intelligence and confidential fund.

At one point, in September 2023, Duterte’s staff went to COA for a meeting and requested that the agency not issue an AOM.

At least four AOMs were sent to Duterte’s office.

Duterte was impeached in the House of Representatives in May and faced trial in the Senate on four articles of impeachment: betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, bribery, and other high crimes for enriching while in office and threatening to kill the president, his wife, and his cousin.

If convicted, Duterte will be removed from office and will be banned from seeking any public office.

Wamil said he was transferred in February 2024 and was unaware of what happened to the vice president’s cases.

The prosecution said it would present a second witness, Xylene Mae del Campo, another state auditor who replaced Wamil, to testify to what happened to the vice president’s cases.

Duterte was asked to return nearly 400 million of the 612 million pesos in intelligence and confidential funds after a notice of disallowance (ND) was issued following repeated AOMs and NSs that went unheeded.

Several senator-judges took turns asking clarifying questions about Wamil’s testimony.

One senator, Imee Marcos, who is aligned with the vice president, argued with the witness, badgering him as to why Duterte was being blamed for the mess when she is clearly not the accountable officer.

Wamil responded that Duterte is the head of the office that approved, certified, and attested the reports on the disbursement and liquidation of the intelligence and confidential funds.

“These are all public funds, and as the accountable officer, the vice president has to account for the money that went through her office,” he said. “There are no exceptions.”

Wamil said he based his audit on the documents submitted to COA, and they do not know whether the recipients of the intelligence and confidential funds were actual persons or were only using aliases.

Another senator, Panfilo Lacson, a former national police chief and seasoned intelligence officer, questioned Wamil’s security clearance because he was handling sensitive information as an auditor.

The senator-judges elicited information from the witness that the prosecution and defense panels failed to ask.