Manuel Mogato | September 29, 2026
MANILA — Vice President Sara Duterte received lavish gifts — billions of pesos in cash, imported chocolates, designer bags, and cars — from a political ally when she was still Davao City mayor.
A dismissed police officer, who served as a security officer of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, has surfaced to reveal details of the regular gifts the vice president had received from 2018 to 2022.
Last week, Police Corporal Rodulfo Gracioso Jr. submitted an eight-page sworn statement to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and provided information on how he delivered suitcases of cash to the vice president.
Each suitcase was stuffed with cash amounting to 20 million pesos to 50 million pesos, Gracioso said in his affidavit. (Also read: “I delivered cash for the Vice President”)
He also recalled that at least 100 million pesos placed in boxes were delivered to Sara Duterte at her Davao City residence. Cash was also delivered to Diamond or EDSA Shangri-La hotels every time she visited Manila before Duterte was elected vice president in 2022.
Apart from suitcases of cash, Gracioso said he handed the vice president boxes of Japanese-brand chocolates, Hermes bags, and an expensive imported wristwatch.
NBI director Melvin Matibag said a Roman Catholic priest brought Gracioso to his office in June and took his statement after he underwent a lie detector test.
Gracioso challenged the vice president to undergo a lie detector test to determine who was telling the truth.
Based on his affidavit, the NBI raided several houses owned by former Speaker Lord Allan Velasco in Valle Verde subdivision in Pasig in August and recovered firearms.
The NBI found Velasco’s wife, Rowena Amara, in one of the houses, which Gracioso said was used to keep cash before the money was delivered to Duterte, her father, and elder brother.
Gracioso, 36, joined the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2015 and saw action during the 2017 Marawi siege. After the war, he was detailed to Marinduque Congressman Velasco and became head of a 16-member security team.
Before Velasco became House Speaker, he was already delivering cash, Royce chocolate, and Hermes to the vice president.
He said cash was also given to the vice president to buy several motorcycles that were used in the 2019 mid-term elections. (Also read: Police officer testifies that the Vice President, husband own more than 50 guns)
The money used to buy the motorcycles was given to Ramil Madriaga, who earlier came forward to reveal he delivered 125 million pesos to three locations in December 2022. The money was the vice president’s confidential funds for the year.
Several Toyota Grandia vans, including a bulletproof vehicle, were also delivered to Davao City.
In 2019, Duterte went to Marinduque to endorse Velasco’s congressional candidacy and his father, who was running for governor.
Duterte also supported Velasco’s bid to become House Speaker against Alan Peter Cayetano after the 2019 elections.
In his affidavit, Gracioso said he saw Public Works and Highways engineer Henry Alcantara, Roberto Bernardo, and the late Maria Catalina Cabral visiting the former speaker’s residence.
The three engineers were at the center of a corruption scandal involving infrastructure projects that led to the arrest of a senator and another former speaker, Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.
Matibag said the cash Velasco delivered to Duterte may have come from the 25 percent kickbacks in billions of pesos of infrastructure projects during Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.
Matibag said Velasco left for Japan in early September, while his wife left for Hong Kong a week later. They did not return after Gracioso’s expose.