More familiar and odd-sounding names surfaced as supposed recipients of million-peso confidential funds from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) under Vice President Sara Duterte during the Senate impeachment trial on Tuesday, Aug. 11.
DepEd special disbursing officer (SDO) Edward Fajarda was also found as having disbursed cash payments to several recipients of the confidential funds on the same dates but at different locations in the country.
“If the SDO were not Superman, is he capable of going to all these places [in one day]?” House private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan asked state auditor Xylene Mae del Campo, likening his feat to that of the comic book superhero.
These were among the points raised by Kapunan during her second direct examination of Del Campo, auditor of the Commission on Audit’s (COA) Intelligence and Confidential Fund Audit Unit.
The COA official evaluated Duterte’s confidential fund spending as vice president and education secretary for three quarters of 2023. She succeeded state auditor Roderick Wamil, the prosecution’s witness in the articles of impeachment allegations against Duterte’s misuse of ₱612 million in confidential funds.
Wamil testified last week about alleged discrepancies and irregularities in the disbursement of cash advances from the confidential fund spending in the OVP and the DepEd, in violation of COA Joint Circular No. 2015-01, which governs how confidential and intelligence funds are spent, handled, and audited across the government.
‘Confidential’ activities
Del Campo, on her second day as witness, said Duterte’s office submitted a list of supposed confidential activities that did not even cover the cash advances from Dec. 21–31, 2022.
For instance, she said the OVP listed the 2022 Partners Appreciation Night held at the DepEd office in Mandaluyong City on Dec. 13, 2022, and Youth Campaign on Patriotism, Knights of Rizal Supreme Council in Baguio City on Dec. 15, 2022.
For Dec. 17, 2022, it cited the Christmas activity at Happyland in Tondo, Manila; Christmas activity and exploration meeting of extension office, Barangay 101, Tondo; consultation with barangay chairmen, Manila; Pasasalamat and update meeting Toda (Tricycle Operators and Drivers’ Association), Barangay Hills, Quezon City; and Pasasalamat and consultation meeting with TNVS (transportation network vehicle service), Angkas and food delivery drivers, and for persons with disabilities.
Del Campo said that after evaluating the liquidation documents, the COA issued a notice of disallowance (ND) of ₱73.287 million: ₱69.78 million for payment of rewards to informants and ₱3.5 million for the purchase of tables, chairs, desktop computers, and printers.
She said that the OVP did not submit any sales or invoice receipts to back its liquidation documents. In its response to the COA notice, the OVP sought a petition for review on Feb. 5, 2024, but on April 10, 2026, the audit agency affirmed it, she said.
The OVP then filed a motion for reconsideration in May this year, but the state auditor said there was “no decision yet from COA” at this time.
Acknowledgment receipts
Looking at some of the 1,049 acknowledgment receipts (AR) submitted by the OVP for the first two quarters of 2023, Kapunan mentioned Pia Piatos-Lim, Clarisse Hontiveros, Jose Diokno Jr., Diane Maple Lapid, John Lapid, Beth Revilla, Kristine Applegate Estrada, and Denise Tanya Escudero as among the supposed recipients of confidential funds.
She asked Del Campo whether she looked into the identities of Heart Santiago and Anna Ongpauco, and whether they were related to Senate presiding judge Francis Escudero. Escudero is married to celebrity Heart Evangelista, whose real surname is Ongpauco.
At one point, Kapunan, noting the names of fund recipients Jay Kamote, Miggy Mango, and Matthew N. Keso, quipped: “They must be making a salad; there’s a kamote, mango, and keso.”
Other interesting recipients on the AR were Honeylet Camille Sy, Kokoy Villamin, Beverly Claire Pampano, and Ralph Joseph Bacon.
For the third quarter of 2023, Del Campo said the OVP attached to its liquidation reports payments of rewards that did not show evidence of success “that would warrant” that payment.
Likewise, the OVP listed confidential activities such as tree planting and award ceremonies for this period. It also failed to show “particular accomplishments,” for instance, in warding off possible threats such as the New People’s Army.
Disbursement officer
Asked by Kapunan what COA did after the OVP’s submission of its spending liquidation in response to the agency’s two audit observation memorandums (AOM), Del Campo said she happened to attend a House hearing on the confidential funds of the Vice President, where she was subpoenaed as a witness.
During the November 2024 hearing, she heard the admission of Gina Acosta, SDO of the OVP, that she handed the cash advances in the confidential funds to Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, who was then the head of the OVP’s Security and Protection Group.
She told Kapunan this violated Section 6.1.1 of the joint circular, which stated that “under no circumstances shall confidential funds be handed from one accountable officer to another.”
“Under the joint circular, it’s the SDO who disburses cash advances,” she said, adding that it was also the responsibility of the head of the agency, in this case Duterte, to ensure the proper disbursement of confidential funds.
“This is a direct violation of the joint circular, especially Section 6.1.1,” the witness said.
After the House hearing, Del Campo said she drafted an ND issuance to the OVP following Duterte’s directive to Acosta to hand the cash advances to Lachica. The ND disallowed P375 million in cash advances for the third quarter of 2023.
Upon questioning by Kapunan, Del Ocampo said Duterte, Acosta, Lachica and OVP chief accountant Juliet Villadelrey were “accountable” for the disallowed confidential funds, given their respective responsibilities to ensure the proper disbursement of “public funds.”
Kapunan asked why the COA immediately issued an ND but not a notice of suspension, which is the next step after the COA’s earlier issuance of an AOM failed to get sufficient responses from an agency. The state auditor reiterated that it was because Lachica was given the cash advances for disbursement.
“This violates the joint circular, making it irregular,” she told Kapunan. The auditor said an ND prescribes 180 days or six months from receiving the notice.
Del Campo said COA was still evaluating the DepEd’s Aug. 27, 2024 response to the AOM issued by the audit agency on Aug. 8, 2024.
Same dates, different addresses
On DepEd’s confidential funds for the first two quarters of 2023, Kapunan presented to Del Campo “select” ARs from the total 1,180 ARs submitted to the COA.
Kapunan read six ARs with names or just signatures that showed the SDO, in this case Fajarda, had paid them from ₱40,000 to ₱150,000 in exchange for information or provision of supplies, all on Feb. 23, 2023, and from various locations such as Davao City, Agusan del Sur, and Negros Occidental.
Asked by Kapunan what was significant about this, Del Campo said: “Based on the ARs, that’s on Feb. 23, 2023, and were given at different addresses.”
She said she could not recall ever encountering a case in which disbursements were made on the same day at different locations during the post-audits she had conducted in national and local governments, as well as government-owned corporations.
Kapunan also presented to the impeachment court several ARs showing that Fajarda had paid off recipients on Feb. 25 and March 15, 2023, all on the same dates but at different locations.
Defense lawyer Kristine Ferrer told the court that Kapunan’s question was “hypothetical” on whether Fajarda could be likened to Superman for this kind of feat. CS
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