By Tracy Cabrera
SENATE, Pasay City — On the 12th day of Vice President ‘Inday’ Sara Duterte-Carpio’s impeachment trial, House prosecutor and Bicol Saro party-list representative James Mark Terry Ridon disclosed that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) sought a softer audit action from the Commission on Audit (CoA) after irregularities were found in VP Duterte’s use of her confidential and intelligence funds.
In a scathing commentary, Ridon tagged the attempt as an “audacious” and “(highly) irregular” attempt to influence state auditors.
In a media briefing following the conclusion of last Tuesday’s trial proceedings, the sectoral lawmaker asserted that it was improper for the OVP and officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) to ask CoA to issue an “audit query” instead of an Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) after deficiencies were found in both agencies’ confidential fund submissions.
“The people involved at the OVP and the Department of Education have quite a lot of nerve to even raise an audit query with the Commission on Audit,” Ridon pointed out in the vernacular.
Noting that only CoA has the authority to decide what audit document to issue to a government agency, the Bicolano lawmaker stressed that “(CoA) is not subject to a request (or) favor by any other agency.”
“They tried to influence the agency. Instead of issuing an Audit Observation Memorandum for both the OVP and the Department of Education, they wanted a slap on the wrist, an audit query memorandum,” he cited while hinting that the request suggested OVP officials were aware that formal audit findings were imminent and sought to avoid the issuance of an AOM.
“They knew that an audit observation was forthcoming. ‘Let’s have a meeting, maybe it’s possible, just an audit query’,” he enthused.
Before this development, former CoA Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO) auditor Roderick Wamil had testified that OVP chief-of-staff Zuleika Lopez and then DepEd spokesman Michael Poa met with CoA officials in September 2023 and requested that state auditors issue a less formal “audit query” rather than an AOM regarding potential deficiencies in confidential funds.
CoA, however, rejected the request, stating it was not an authorized procedure. It subsequently issued AOMs due to missing documents and noncompliant liquidations.
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