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Commission on Audit (COA) state auditor Roderick Wamil continues his testimony before the Impeachment Court during the 13th day of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte at the Senate of the Philippines in Pasay City on Tuesday, August 5, 2026. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News
MANILA (UPDATE) — An auditor who examined the confidential expenses of Vice President Sara Duterte's office said Wednesday it was his "first time" to encounter the liquidation of such funds for a certain period supported only by acknowledgement receipts.
Prosecution witness Roderick Wamil said he could not say whether the Office of the Vice President's submission of purely acknowledgement receipts, with no official receipts, for the liquidation of the P125-million confidential funds spent from Dec. 21-31, 2022, was standard practice because it was his first time to handle such a case.
"Hindi ko siya masasabing standard practice since ito 'yung kauna-unahang beses na puro AR (acknowledgement receipts) yung sinabmit sa amin," he said during the interpellation of Senator-judge Kiko Pangilinan on his third day to appear before the Senate impeachment court.
"At ganun kadaming AR kaagad yung sinabmit," noted Wamil, who previously audited the confidential expenses of at least 30 national government agencies and local government units.
Wamil, a lawyer who had been assigned to the Commission on Audit's Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office for nearly 10 years and is now the auditing leader of the COA's Pasay City office, was referring to the 845 acknowledgement receipts submitted by the OVP for the liquidation of the confidential funds spent during that 11-day period.
The hundreds of acknowledgement receipts for the OVP's confidential funds spending at the end of 2022 presented by the prosecution panel were not stipulated to by Duterte's defense team.
Defense highlights legitimacy of confidential funds for Duterte's offices
Asked by Pangilinan whether the OVP submitted official receipts or sales invoices for its confidential expenses for the said period, Wamil said, "Wala po sinabmit sa amin."
The auditor on Tuesday said that the OVP's spending of multimillion-peso confidential funds in a short amount of time was not outlawed by any provision, even as he noted several "violations" in the way the office spent its P500-million confidential funds from 2022-2023.
He has said that the COA is using the Joint Circular No. 2015-01 as a basis to audit confidential funds. That circular sets guidelines for release, use, reporting and audit of confidential and intelligence funds.
Duterte is facing allegations of "systematic misuse, misappropriation and irregular liquidation" of confidential funds totaling P612.5 million, of which P500 million was for OVP and P112.5 million for the Department of Education, which she headed from 2022-2024. She and her lawyers have denied any wrongdoing.
Witness flags 'violations' in OVP confidential fund use
AR vs OR
Wamil explained that agencies use acknowledgement receipts as proof of compensation to the person who received the payment. Official receipts, on the other hand, are issued by Bureau of Internal Revenue-registered establishments for the agencies' item purchases.
Asked by Senator-judge Bam Aquino whether official receipts are more acceptable than acknowledgement receipts when liquidating funds, Wamil said, "Depende po yan kapag purchases kasi kailangan po talagang OR (official receipts) yung ibigay sa amin kasi doon namin tinitingnan kung nag-purchase talaga sila."
"'Yung acknowledgment receipt, ina-acknowledge doon ng recipient ng payment na natanggap niya 'yung payment," he added.
Wamil further explained during the interpellation of Senator-judge Joel Villanueva that acknowledgement receipts are "allowed" when liquidating purchase of information.
On Tuesday, Wamil flagged OVP's confidential expenses in 2023, saying some of them were items not included among the allowable expenses under the joint circular, such as the provision of medical and food aid as well as payments of "incentives or travelling relative" to the OVP's confidential operations.
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