House panel subpoenas COA report on OVP’s use of confidential funds

THE House Committee on Appropriations yesterday ordered the Commission on Audit (COA) to submit to the panel its audit reports on the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) for fiscal years 2022 and 2023.

On the motion of members of the militant Makabayan bloc, the panel issued a subpoena duces tecum during the hearing on COA’s proposed P13.4 billion budget for 2025 after chairman Gamaliel Cordoba said he could not discuss the findings of the audit reports because of the nature of the funds involved.

Cordoba made it clear, however, that the COA would furnish the panel copies of the audit reports if the motion of Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) to issue a subpoena duces tecum to the COA is approved.

“We already have audit actions and findings on the liquidation report submitted to us (by the OVP),” Cordoba told the panel, responding to Castro who repeatedly urged him to disclose the findings.

Castro and fellow Makabayan bloc member Rep. Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela) particularly wanted to find out how the OVP under Vice President Sara Duterte spent the P125 million confidential funds that it received from the Office of the President in 2022 in just 11 days.

The militant lawmakers also wanted to know badly if notices of disallowance were issued against the OVP by the COA, especially since the P125 million came from the Office of the President and not from the OVP’s 2022 budget, which was crafted when former vice president Leni Robredo was still in office.

The budget hearing, which was presided over by Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, a senior vice chair of the appropriations panel, deferred action on the motion pending the COA’s presentation.

The committee, however, later approved the motion and the motion of Rep. Raoul Manuel (PL, Kabataan), also of the Makabayan bloc, for the panel to subpoena the COA’s audit on the DepEd’s confidential funds for 2023.

“The chair is now ready to rule. By virtue of the oversight power of the committee on appropriations, the motion to issue a subpoena duces tecum requiring COA to submit the audit report of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education and the