Senator-judge Robinhood Padilla pressed a former state auditor Tuesday on whether covert agents paid through government confidential funds should be required to reveal their real identities, injecting a national security frame into an impeachment trial otherwise focused on missing receipts and unsupported disbursements.
During a clarificatory interjection at the 12th day of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, Padilla asked witness Roderick Wamil whether he had ever visited the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and whether he was aware of the country’s ongoing terrorism threats. The senator then steered his questions toward the confidential funds at the center of the prosecution’s case, probing whether operatives funded for surveillance on potential New People’s Army recruitment should be made to disclose who they are.
“But you were the one who handled the investigation regarding the confidential funds, correct?” Padilla asked in Filipino. Wamil corrected the characterization: “It was not an investigation. It was an evaluation.”
Padilla continued, asking whether the auditor believed confidential agents should have to identify themselves and state their true names. Wamil replied that the governing joint circular contained no such provision. Asked to define “confidential,” the auditor answered simply that it meant “classified.”
Wamil, who served at the Commission on Audit’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office from September 2014 to February 2024, returned to the stand as the prosecution’s third witness on the first article of impeachment, which accuses Duterte of misusing P612.5 million in confidential funds at the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.
His testimony this week centered on documentary gaps rather than the substance of any intelligence work. On Tuesday, Wamil testified that at least P129 million of the OVP’s P250-million confidential fund allocation for the first two quarters of 2023 lacked supporting documents showing the money was spent for its stated purposes, in violation of Joint Circular No. 2015-01, according to GMA News Online. He said DepEd similarly failed to submit supporting documents for its P112.5 million in confidential funds in 2023, spread across counterinsurgency, abuse prevention, anti-illegal activities and anti-extremism programs.
The prosecution has argued that acknowledgment receipts alone do not establish that public money was lawfully spent. Under the 2015 joint circular, payments to informers must be approved by the agency head, tied to a specific confidential activity, and backed by documents showing that the information-gathering or surveillance actually succeeded, Philstar.com reported. Wamil testified that the OVP produced receipts and little else to demonstrate compliance.
The Manila Bulletin reported that Wamil also told the court that Duterte’s subordinates — including OVP chief-of-staff Zuleika Lopez and then-DepEd chief-of-staff Michael Poa, now a member of the vice president’s defense team — sought a softer audit action on the confidential funds during a September 2023 meeting with COA officials.
The trial is expected to continue with further documentary evidence and additional witnesses from both the prosecution and the defense.
