Witness testifies there was an “irregular” liquidation of Vice President’s security-related public funds

A former state auditor testified before a Senate impeachment court that he observed irregularities in Vice President Sara Duterte’s liquidation report on intelligence and confidential funds.

Boxes containing documents on Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds brought into the senate last Monday, August 3, 2026. Photo by Wendell D. Alinea / Senate Social Media Unit

Manuel Mogato | August 4, 2026

MANILA — A former state auditor testified before a Senate impeachment court that he observed irregularities in Vice President Sara Duterte’s liquidation report on intelligence and confidential funds.

Roderick Wamil told senator-judges that Vice President Duterte did not comply with requirements under the Commission on Audit (COA) rules in the disbursement and liquidation of the 612 million pesos in intelligence and confidential funds from December 2022 until September 2023

“There are no exemptions in the audit of intelligence and confidential funds,” Wamil said, adding the vice president’s office has to “strictly” observe the rules under the Joint Circular 2015-01 governing secret security-related expenses.

A seasoned litigator, lawyer Lorna Kapunan, one of the private prosecutors, questioned how the vice president spent 500 million pesos in confidential and intelligence funds allocated to her office and a similar 112 million pesos allocated to the education department in 2023.

Speaking to journalists after the 12th day of the trial, Kapunan said the vice president’s behavior and attitude towards the intelligence and confidential funds reflect what she described as a pattern that dates back to her previous posts in government.

Kapunan said her failure to liquidate confidential funds properly created a legal presumption that the money may have been misused or diverted for personal purposes.

During the trial, she blurted that what the vice president did was a “scam,” but was ordered stricken off the record by the court’s presiding officer.

Duterte’s lawyers attempted to discredit the state auditor’s testimony, saying he has no personal knowledge of the “internal controls” in the vice president’s office.

Michael Poa, the defense lawyer, also said Wamil did not know what actions the vice president’s office took to rectify the deficiencies pointed out by the auditors.

Wamil was with the COA’s intelligence and confidential fund office from 2014 to 2024 and would be unaware of events after his reassignment to other COA offices.

Vice President Duterte was accused of committing culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust through alleged “systematic misuse, misappropriation, and irregular liquidation” of a total of P612.5 million in confidential funds released to the OVP and the Department of Education.