Senator Panfilo Lacson called Wednesday for a comprehensive overhaul of Commission on Audit (COA) rules governing confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs), urging tighter audit standards alongside security clearances for state auditors reviewing classified files.
Speaking at the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, Lacson noted that current COA procedures rely heavily on superficial document checks. He recommended granting security clearances to auditors so they can verify classified records and the true identities behind intelligence aliases.
“How would you know if the one signing the acknowledgement receipts is a legitimate person if you cannot determine if the person behind the alias is a real person?” Lacson asked.
He also proposed recognizing after-surveillance and intelligence reports to validate operational outcomes after COA auditor Roderick Wamil testified that Joint Circular No. 2015-01 lacks specific document requirements to prove an intelligence mission’s success.
Tulfo Raises Conflict of Interest Concern
At the start of the trial, Senator-Judge Raffy Tulfo raised a point of order against defense counsel Michael Poa over his prior attendance at a DepEd-COA audit meeting concerning confidential funds.
“Hindi po ba conflict of interest iyon para siya ay mag-represent dito ngayon sa … pinag-usapang confidential funds when in fact, eh siya mismo pumunta doon sa COA office para makipag-usap sa kanila,” Tulfo asked.
Presiding Officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero overruled the concern:
“Atty. Poa, although he served under the Office of the Vice President, I believe, and even under DepEd, is not named respondent to this case and is in fact one of the lawyers, as you can see, of the respondent… I believe there is no conflict with respect to that given that he is not the one on trial in this case,” Escudero said.
Court Issues Administrative Directives on Bank Records and Lascañas Affidavit
Escudero ordered the Clerk of Court to verify digital against hard-copy submissions of bank, tax, and Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) records belonging to Duterte and her spouse, Manases Carpio, before releasing copies to both sides.
The court also allowed the prosecution to transfer exhibit markings onto an unsworn affidavit attributed to self-confessed Davao Death Squad member Arturo Lascañas, which the NBI used as an open-source lead regarding alleged grave threats against national leaders.
Impeachment court spokesperson Reginald Tongol clarified that the marking transfer was purely administrative.
“While granting the physical transfer of markings, the Court explicitly rules this as a purely ‘mechanical and ministerial act,’ and the document is not yet considered as evidence until formally offered under Section 34, Rule 132 of the Rules of Court,” Tongol said.
“As the Court underscored: a physical exhibit label does not magically cure an unverified document,” he added.