Metro Manila, Philippines – Impeachment trial defense spokesperson Michael Poa said that the request from Vice President Sara Duterte’s staff for the Commission on Audit (COA) to issue an audit query instead of an audit observation memorandum (AOM) was not in any way meant to seek exemption from an audit on Duterte’s offices.
COA auditor Roderick Wamil told the Impeachment Court that Duterte’s staff, including Zuleika Lopez and Michael Poa, met with Commission on Audit (COA) in September 2023 after the commission flagged the Department of Education (DepEd) liquidation of ₱112.5 million in confidential funds (CF).
It was at this meeting, Wamil said, that the vice president’s team asked about the process of liquidating cash advances, the required supporting documents. The auditor said an official of the COA referred Duterte’s staff members to Joint Circular 2015-01, governing the use of CF.
“They asked po if instead of na-audit observation memorandum in case may [there were] findings, ay audit query nalang po yung i-submit, i-issue sakanila [that an audit query be issued instead],” Wamil said.
An AOM is a written notice informing an agency of audit deficiencies and requiring it to submit explanations or supporting documents. Wamil added that he was not familiar with an audit query as this is not mentioned in the joint circular.
The auditor said the COA proceeded with issuing an AOM after the September 2023 meeting.
During Poa’s cross-examination of Wamil, the auditor likened asking for an audit query to seeking an exemption from the provisions of Joint Circular 2015-01.
In a post-trial briefing, Poa denied any intention of seeking exemption by asking for an audit query.
“Definitely not, that was not on the table. You cannot ask for exemption, that’s the point. That’s why I was saying he was very unresponsive with the question because you cannot ask for exemption and I don’t think any government official would ask for exemption from COA, and I don’t think COA would allow that,” he told reporters.
“About that audit query, I think the intention was na kung merong clarification baka pwedeng audit query muna parang ganon [if there was a clarification, maybe they could issue an audit query first], and if we’re not able to justify then go ahead and issue. But, nasabihan din naman talaga kami [we were told]… ang audit query kasi sa private sector it’s done, eh pero di ko alam noon na pagdating pala sa [audit queries are done in the private sector but I didn’t know that when I got to] government they don’t do that, so they just told us we can’t do that,” he explained.
Poa was DepEd chief of staff at the time. He recalled that he was asked to attend the September 2023 meeting.
“I think it was COA who called for that meeting but I’m not sure, that’s why I was trying to get verification from the OVP kung sino nagpatawag ng meeting na yon [on who called the meeting], I was there but I was more of a bystander kasi di naman napagusapan yung DepEd [because DepEd was not really discussed] at that time,” he added.
DepEd liquidation of confidential funds
During the direct examination of the witness, private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan presented three Department of Education (DepEd) liquidation reports covering ₱37.5 million in confidential funds for the first three quarters of 2023.
Under the “particulars” section, the cash advances were liquidated for the payment of maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOEs).
Wamil said MOOEs are not allowable expenses under Joint Circular 2015-01. He added that MOOEs should instead be charged to an agency’s regular operating expenses.
All three documents were certified by Vice President Sara Duterte when she was education secretary.
Aside from the liquidation reports, Wamil pointed out that the DepEd did not submit supporting documents for its physical and financial plan or its confidential activities where the CFs were disbursed.
