The Office of the Vice President’s spending of P125 million in confidential funds within 11 days was considered “irregular” due to insufficient supporting documents, an auditor from the Commission on Audit (COA) testified before the Impeachment Court on Wednesday.
Xylene Mae del Campo of the COA’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office told the Impeachment Court that the OVP and DepEd used confidential funds totalling P612.5 million but did not provide supporting documents that would prove the success of their alleged security operations.
“Dahil po ngayon, sa payment of rewards were not supported with documents evidencing success and yun nga po hindi nila na-provide yung additional documents necessary para ma-ascertain yung purchase of supplies and medical and food aid,” del Campo said when asked by Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros.
Any portion of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) P125-million confidential fund that was not spent by December 31, 2022, should have been returned to the National Treasury, del Campo also said.
Senator-judge Francis Pangilinan focused his questioning on why the OVP spent the entire P125 million within only 11 days, from December 21 to December 31, 2022.
“Kapag hindi naubos ’yung P125 million by December 31, ano ang mangyayari sa pondo?” Pangilinan asked.
“Babalik po ’yun sa National Treasury,” COA auditor Xylene Mae Del Campo replied.
Earlier in the trial, del Campo said that after the OVP was issued Notices of Disallowance, the agency submitted documents in an attempt to comply with the joint circular on confidential and intelligence funds.
“Mayroon pong na-submit na dokumento, pero after the evaluation of each document po, hindi pa rin po siya compliant with the Joint Circular,” Del Campo said.
Former Landbank Shaw Boulevard branch manager Violeta Constantino and former Landbank DepEd branch manager Nenita Camposano previously testified before the Impeachment Court that they found the multi-million one-day withdrawals by the OVP and DepEd under Duterte “unusual.”
The OVP withdrew a total of P500 million in four separate single-day transactions of P125 million each between December 2022 and July 2023 from the Landbank Shaw Boulevard branch, while the DepEd withdrew a total of P112.5 million in three separate single-day transactions of P37.5 million each in 2023 from the Landbank DepEd branch. ||
