📷: Army Col. Reymund Dante Lachica
The Commission on Audit (COA) has directed Vice President Sara Duterte, Army Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, and two key officials of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to return a total of ₱448 million following a new Notice of Disallowance (ND) covering ₱375 million in confidential funds.
In the ND dated March 31, 2026, COA ordered Duterte, Lachica, Special Disbursing Officer Gina Acosta, and Chief Accountant Julieta Villadelrey to personally return ₱375 million, representing three separate cash advances of ₱125 million each for confidential expenses incurred between February and September 2023.
This ruling adds to the earlier ₱73-million disallowance involving 2022 confidential funds, bringing the potential liability to ₱448 million if upheld through the full COA process.
During a House committee hearing on good government and public accountability in November 2024, Acosta revealed that upon the instruction of VP Sara, she handed over the confidential funds to Lachica on three occasions: ₱125 million in January 2023, ₱125 million in April 2023, and ₱125 million in July 2023.
“The directive given by the Hon. Vice President Sara Duterte to Ms. Gina Acosta to release/give the cash advances for confidential expenses to Colonel Raymund Dante Lachica, the Head of the Vice-President Security and Protection Group (VPSPG), is contrary to Item 6.1.1 of COA-DBM-DILG-GCG-DND Joint Circular No. 2015-011 dated January 8, 2015, which provides that cash advances shall be used for a specific legal purpose related to confidential and/or intelligence funds and under no circumstance shall they be used for liquidation of the previous cash advance or be transferred from one accountable to another,” the COA stated. # (ZIA LUNA)
