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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
April 20, 2026 | 3:57pm
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte now faces orders to return P448 million in confidential fund spending after the Commission on Audit flagged another P375 million on top of P73.28 million it already rejected earlier this month.
The new ruling, dated March 31, 2026, covers three cash advances of P125 million each released between February and September 2023.
State auditors found the money was spent in violation of government rules. It is especially flagging the Duterte's transfer to unauthorized officers, use for rewards with no proof of successful operations, and the lack of documents to substantiate the actual expenditures.
A copy of the notice of disallowance was shared by Rep. Terry Ridon (Bicol Saro), a member of the House justice committee.
A notice of disallowance is COA's formal rejection of a government expense it deems irregular, excessive, or unjustified. Once final, the officials named in the notice are legally obligated to return the money out of their own pockets.
Philstar.com has reached out to COA to verify the document and is awaiting a response.
What auditors found
At the center of this new COA ruling is Duterte's directive to release cash advances to Col. Raymund Dante P. Lachica, who was, at the time, head of her security group. Under the joint circular governing confidential funds, the money should have gone only to the designated special disbursing officer.
Of the P375 million, COA flagged P261.3 million in specific deficiencies, according to the document shared by Ridon. It says the OVP spent P62 million on rewards but failed to submit documents proving the intelligence or surveillance operations behind them were successful, as required by the joint circular governing confidential fund use. The document also says the OVP spent another P199 million on supplies and medical aid and backed the purchases with acknowledgement receipts instead of official receipts.
A further P150,000 was disbursed before the cash advance had been granted, going against government rules for the disbursement of the secret fund, according to the notice.
This is the second time COA has rejected the OVP's confidential fund spending. The first, covering P73.28 million spent in 11 days in December 2022, was appealed by Duterte. However, COA upheld the disallowance in a ruling April 10, which was shared during the House justice panel's impeachment hearing on April 14.
Who are liable?
Four individuals were named personally responsible for the 2023 amount: Duterte, for approving the transactions; Gina F. Acosta, special disbursing officer; Julieta L. Villadelrey, chief accountant; and Col. Lachica. The same officials minus Lachica were named in the 2022 disallowance.
While the 2022 disallowance is deemed final, though Duterte can still challenge it before the Supreme Court.
The second disallowance can be appealed within 180 days of receipt. The OVP did not immediately provide a response to the COA document shared by Ridon.
The bigger picture
Duterte's use of confidential funds has been under scrutiny since mid-2023, when COA's annual audit report revealed her office spent P125 million in secret funds in just 11 days in December 2022. It was an amount that drew scrutiny as it came from the Office of the President's contingent fund, released upon Duterte's request, and raised questions about whether the transfer had legal basis.
The OVP received another P500 million in confidential funds for 2023, broken down into P125 million per quarter. It spent P375 million across the first three quarters before deciding not to use the final tranche — around the same time Congress stripped her office and the Department of Education, which she also headed at the time, of confidential fund allocations for 2024.
House investigations that began in 2024 unearthed further questions with Duterte's use of secret funds. Acknowledgement receipts submitted to COA contained names that could not be found in the Philippine Statistics Authority's civil registry. Duterte's special disbursing officers told lawmakers they did not know how the funds were actually spent and stressed that their role was limited to withdrawing cash and handing it to Duterte's security officers.
These alleged irregularities in Duterte's use of secret funds have followed her all the way to the second round of impeachment against her. She was first impeached by the House in February 2025, but the Supreme Court nullified the case that July on procedural grounds. New complaints were filed in February 2026 after the one-year constitutional ban lapsed, and the House justice committee began hearings on March 25. The panel is expected to wrap up proceedings by April 29, with the Senate already preparing for a potential trial.
Duterte, who announced her 2028 presidential bid in February, has petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the proceedings and called them unconstitutional. She has not attended any of the hearings and maintains the accusations against her are contrived by her political enemies in Congress.
