Vice President Sara Duterte is not the only official to have received confidential funds in the Office of the Vice President (OVP), the defense panel argued as the impeachment trial resumed, presenting a 2014 government document to support its claim.

Defense counsel Atty. Michael Poa presented before the impeachment court a Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) dated December 22, 2014, from the Department of Budget and Management, showing an allocation of confidential funds for the OVP during the term of then-Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Poa said the document was presented to correct what he described as a misleading impression circulating on social media that Duterte was the first vice president to receive confidential funds.

"I am showing you a document and this document is from the Department of Budget and Management entitled Special Allotment Release Order... dated December 22, 2014," Poa told former Commission on Audit (COA) state auditor Atty. Roderick Wamil during cross-examination. "And the purpose is to cover confidential activities for fiscal year 2014."

Wamil, who served at the COA's Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO) from 2014 to 2024, confirmed he was already assigned to the office at the time the SARO was issued.

Poa also pointed out that Duterte was not yet vice president during the period covered by the document, referring to the Binay administration's OVP.

Wamil, in response, raised the question of whether the funds had in fact been liquidated, to which Poa clarified that liquidation was not the issue in question.

"That's actually a question for ICFAO, because all I'm showing you is that the Office of the Vice President already had confidential funds in 2014, issued December 22, 2014," Poa said.

Wamil ultimately acknowledged that, based on the document shown to him, confidential funds had indeed been allocated to the OVP that year.

The exchange comes after Wamil earlier testified that during his time at COA-ICFAO, it was only under Duterte's term as vice president that he was able to audit confidential funds of both the OVP and the Department of Education.

Following the exchange, Poa apologized to Binay's camp in case anyone was offended by the line of questioning, saying the defense's intent was solely to clarify the issue and prevent what he called misleading information about the history of confidential funds in the OVP.

‍