The former special disbursing officer (SDO) at the Office of the Vice President (OVP) admitted on Monday, Aug. 17, that Col. Raymund Dante Lachica was not mentioned in any of the documents submitted to the Commission on Audit (COA) in justifying the disbursement of ₱125 million in confidential funds in December 2022. Gina Acosta made...
Tag: confidential funds
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COA studies post-audit of Duterte secret funds
The Commission on Audit (COA) is studying the possibility of conducting a post-fraud audit of the multimillion-peso confidential funds of Vice President Sara Duterte in view of the “aliases” and odd-sounding names of their supposed recipients in her office and the Department of Education (DepEd). Xylene Mae del Campo, state auditor of the COA-Intelligence and...
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More odd-sounding names of Duterte secret fund ‘recipients’ listed
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...
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COA’s document-based audit of secret funds disappoints senator-judges
Senator-judges in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte expressed deep frustration on Wednesday, Aug. 5, over the Commission on Audit’s (COA) failure to go beyond the liquidation documents it reviewed regarding the alleged misused multimillion-peso confidential funds. Roderick Wamil, a former state auditor of the COA’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Unit (Icfau),...
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Duterte’s office failed to back ₱125M in secret funds, says state auditor
Vice President Sara Duterte’s office failed to submit the required documents to the Commission on Audit (COA) on its use of ₱125 million in confidential funds, which was spent in 11 days in 2022, a COA auditor told the Senate impeachment trial on Monday, Aug. 3. It even spent ₱50 million, which was not allowed...
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Ex-bank managers say large OVP, DepEd cash withdrawals ‘unusual’
Two former LandBank branch managers found “unusual” the million-peso cash withdrawals by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) between 2022 and 2023 because of the large amounts involved. They said it was the first time they had ever seen these transactions in their banking careers. One of them, Violeta...
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The Senate’s accountability gap in 4 points
The May 11 drama in the Senate was surprising only for its theatrics—a leadership coup in the afternoon, a fugitive senator hiding in the chamber’s inner recesses by early evening, and law enforcers kept at bay by closed doors and barbed wire. The Senate has long been the place where senators charged with serious crimes...
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House impeaches VP Duterte again, votes to send her case to the Senate for trial
For the second time, and now with an overwhelming majority, the House of Representatives voted on Monday to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte on accusations of misuse of confidential funds, unexplained wealth, and threats to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. killed. Duterte is the first Filipino official to be impeached twice. The first time was in 2025, with...
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Unanimous vote for articles of impeachment vs VP Duterte
The impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte is one step away from being tried in the Senate, with the House justice committee unanimously approving on Monday the committee report finding probable cause to impeach her. It took almost two hours before 55 members of the committee voted unanimously for the amended committee report and...
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House justice committee finds probable cause to impeach VP Sara Duterte
After a total of six hearings that looked into Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged unexplained wealth, misuse and abuse of confidential funds, and grave threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife, and then Speaker Martin Romualdez, the House of Representatives’ justice committee has found probable cause to impeach her. The vote was unanimous in the committee’s...