COA execs ordered to testify in Sara Duterte's impeachment trial

The Senate impeachment court has ordered former and incumbent state auditors to testify in the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

This developed after the Senate impeachment court granted the House prosecution panel’s motion for the court to issue a subpoena to Roderick Wamil, former state auditor of the Commission on Audit’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Office (COA-ICFAO) and Celine May Del Campo, state auditor of COA ICFAO, both of the COA Central Office.

Aside from the COA officials, also ordered to testify by the court was Marivic Pareja, director of House of Representatives Legislative Information Resources Management Department.

They will testify on the Article 1 of the impeachment case against the Vice President Duterte which alleges that she committed culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust due to alleged misuse of P612.5 million in confidential funds.

The motion to issue subpoena to these individuals was put forward by House lead prosecutor and Batangas Second District Representative Gerville Luistro.

“Your honor, these three witnesses are intended to be presented on August 3, August 4, and August 5 trial schedules,” Luistro said.

In response, Senate impeachment court Presiding Officer Francis Escudero said “The Clerk of Court is directed to issue the corresponding subpoena at testificandum, subpoena duces tecum to the aforementioned witnesses at the afore-stated addresses of the witnesses mentioned by the lead prosecutor, so ordered.”

Of the P612.5 million, P500 million was given to the Office of the Vice President, while the remaining P112.5 million was released to Department of Education during Duterte’s tenure as DepEd chief.

The COA has reported that the P125 million confidential fund allocation for DepEd allocation was utilized within 11 days in December 2022.

COA had disallowed P73 million out of the P125 million confidential fund granted to the Vice President’s office in 2022. — RSJ, GMA News