Bicol Saro Party-list Representative Terry Ridon denounced as “irregular” and “improper” an alleged attempt by subordinates of Vice President Sara Duterte to influence the Commission on Audit (COA) regarding secret funds.
During the continuation of Duterte’s Senate impeachment trial on Tuesday, August 4, COA auditor Roderick Wamil testified that former Education chief-of-staff Atty. Michael Poa and OVP chief-of-staff Atty. Zuleika Lopez met with him in mid-September 2023. At the time, Wamil was auditing the ₱612.5-million confidential funds for both the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd).
According to Wamil, the two officials asked if COA could issue a lesser “audit query” instead of an Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) for any findings.
Ridon, a member of the House prosecution panel, strongly criticized the meeting during a post-trial press conference, stating that COA alone holds the authority to decide its audit outputs without external interference.
“Medyo makapal ang mukha ng mga involved doon sa OVP at [DepEd] to even ask an audit query from the [COA],” Ridon said.
“They tried to influence the agency. Instead of issuing an [AOM] for both the OVP and the [DepEd], they wanted a slap on the wrist, an audit query memorandum lang po.”
“They knew that an audit observation was forthcoming. ‘Pero let’s have a meeting, baka pwede naman, audit query na lang,’” he added.
Wamil noted that an “audit query” is not recognized under Joint Circular No. 2015-01, which governs confidential funds.
COA’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office ultimately rejected the request and issued AOMs after discovering deficiencies in the submissions.