Vice President Sara Duterte is legally presumed to have spent her confidential funds for personal benefit because her office failed to liquidate them, the House prosecution told the Senate impeachment court on Wednesday, August 5.
Prosecution counsel Benjamin Tolosa Jr. said Item 8.3 of Joint Circular No. 2015-01 supplies that presumption, drawing on the testimony of state auditor Roderick Wamil. Under the rule, an accountable officer who cannot account for confidential funds is treated as having diverted them unless proven otherwise. Pressed by Senator Imee Marcos on why COA never used words like “stolen,” Wamil replied, “There is a prima facie evidence,” saying the presumption made such labels unnecessary.
Marcos tried to shift the exposure to whoever physically handled the cash, but Wamil insisted responsibility runs first to the agency head—who approves the advance, monitors spending, and ensures compliance.
The spending patterns struck Wamil as unprecedented in a decade of auditing. He cited the OVP submitting 849 acknowledgment receipts without a single official receipt, logging 111 disbursements worth P17 million on December 23, 2022 alone, and handing out medicine as reward money—one receipt showed “Mary Grace Piattos” receiving P70,000 worth. Senator Francis Pangilinan flagged the receipts’ tidy round figures, like P250,000 and P500,000 with no centavos, which Wamil agreed did not match real purchases.
The names on those receipts drew their own scrutiny—”Renan Piattos,” “Mico Harina,” “Chippy McDonald,” “Mickey Mouse.” Wamil said the audit was document-bound and could not verify whether they were aliases, adding the circular “is silent; it is neither allowed nor prohibited.”
The dispute centers on COA’s notice of disallowance against P125 million in OVP confidential funds for December 21 to 31, 2022. Wamil told presiding officer Senator Francis Escudero the money must be returned at once, even if the OVP goes to the Supreme Court. Even a repayment, Tolosa stressed, would not settle the constitutional questions. “Our allegation is misuse and fraudulent liquidation of the confidential funds. They already constitute betrayal of public trust,” he said.
