Every peso the Office of the Vice President spent on 2025 disaster relief remains accounted for, Duterte’s office said on Friday, pushing back against state auditors who flagged gaps in the records behind nearly P168 million in relief operations.
“No funds were lost, and all funds are accounted for,” the OVP said in a statement dated September 25, 2026. It also insisted that “the relief operations were actually carried out, and the beneficiaries were recorded and validated based on the available supporting documents and field records submitted to the COA Audit Team.”
The Commission on Audit’s findings are in its 273-page report on the 2025 Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (DRRMF). Auditors found that situational reports from the OVP did not match those from concerned agencies and local government units in relief operations involving P19.67 million in welfare goods, including differences in how many families were reported as affected. Philstar reported that 24 relief operations worth P39,009,054.98 changed their schedules, distribution sites, and quantities of relief items and rice without documented approvals. BusinessMirror reported that records for about P25.2 million worth of goods distributed to 33,980 beneficiaries were incomplete or unavailable.
The audit also cited uncertified master lists, unsigned relief distribution sheets, duplicate entries, and incomplete beneficiary information.
The OVP said the problem was narrower than the findings suggest. It described the lapses as deficiencies in “pre-operation” documents that the office requires of itself, requirements “set by the OVP itself as part of its internal procedures, and not requirements imposed by any law or Commission on Audit (COA) regulation.” It said the mismatches happened because conditions on the ground shifted after operations began.
SunStar reported that the audit took issue with the documents used in some operations: relief operations involving more than 200 beneficiaries were supported by paperwork meant for the OVP’s Relief for Indigents and Individuals in Crisis and Emergencies program, not the requirements under COA’s Disaster Operations Policy Manual.
Auditors recommended that the OVP tighten its review procedures and make sure operational adjustments, beneficiary lists, and distribution records are documented, verified, and authorized. The OVP said it is already improving how it documents, validates, and monitors its operations.
The report comes while Duterte faces an impeachment trial in the Senate. Barbers, spokesperson for the House prosecution panel, said the P168 million is public money and every peso should be properly accounted for. “They really have to explain,” he said. In August, Wamil, a former COA auditor, testified at the trial that P82 million in OVP confidential funds from the first half of 2023 went to food and medical aid, expenses he said a state circular on confidential funds does not allow.
The largest single item in the audit involved eight open-ended mission orders covering P84.12 million in distributions. The OVP said those orders were meant to give it flexibility during emergencies. COA said that without specific beneficiary targets, there was little basis for deciding how much relief to request and distribute.
