Vice Pres. Sara Duterte held a press conference at OVP Central Office, Mandaluyong City on Feb. 18, 2026. In the same briefing, she announced her presidential bid for 2028. Screen grabbed from Inday Sara Duterte livestream.
Billions of pesos in confidential expenses recorded across offices headed by Vice President Sara Duterte have become part of the House prosecution’s effort to establish a possible pattern in her impeachment trial.
Rep. Joel Chua said prosecutors were examining how confidential funds figured across Duterte’s leadership of Davao City, the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education. The prosecution has not presented the figures alone as proof of wrongdoing.
At the OVP, Php 500 million in confidential funds was allocated from December 2022 to September 2023, while DepEd received Php 112.5 million in 2023 during Duterte’s tenure as education secretary. The combined Php 612.5 million is under scrutiny in the first article of impeachment.
Prosecutors have also turned to Duterte’s record as Davao City mayor. Commission on Audit figures cited during House proceedings placed the city’s confidential expenses at a combined Php 2.697 billion from 2016 to 2022.
The amount stood at Php 144 million in 2016 before rising to Php 293 million in 2017 and Php 420 million in 2018. It reached Php 460 million annually from 2019 through 2022, according to figures presented by the prosecution.
House trial spokesperson Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said the figures raised questions for prosecutors about the importance Duterte placed on confidential funds. They also cited her earlier preference to head the Department of National Defense when she was being considered for a Cabinet position, although that preference does not by itself establish any connection to the questioned expenditures.
The prosecution also examined personnel who worked with Duterte in different offices. Former OVP special disbursing officer Gina Acosta, who had previously served under Duterte in Davao City, testified that Duterte instructed her to turn over Php 125 million in cash to then Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group chief Col. Raymond Dante Lachica.
House prosecution counsel Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa maintained that records from Duterte’s Davao City tenure could be examined alongside evidence involving the OVP. Although the defense objected to that line of inquiry, impeachment court presiding officer Sen. Chiz Escudero permitted questioning on the earlier transactions insofar as they could be relevant to the prosecution’s attempt to demonstrate a pattern.
