The Commission on Audit (COA) is moving to revisit the rules governing the use and auditing of confidential and intelligence funds, amid growing concerns over how billions of pesos in public money are being released, spent and accounted for.
The issue dates back to August 2023, when then-COA Chairman Gamaliel Cordoba told lawmakers that the agency was open to updating the nearly decade-old Joint Circular No. 2015-01, which sets the rules for the entitlement, release, utilization, reporting and audit of confidential and intelligence funds.
The joint circular was issued in 2015 by COA together with the Department of Budget and Management, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of National Defense and the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations.
Why COA wants the rules reviewed
The push to revisit the guidelines came as confidential and intelligence fund allocations increased and more civilian government agencies sought access to such funds.
During the 2024 budget deliberations, COA officials said the agency wanted to reconvene with the government bodies that originally issued the rules and update the circular, which had already been in effect for about eight years. At the time, the proposed 2024 national budget contained about ₱10.14 billion in confidential and intelligence funds, according to BusinessWorld.
The debate centers on a difficult balance: confidential operations may require secrecy, but the money involved remains public funds and must still be supported by sufficient documentation for government auditors.
Under Joint Circular No. 2015-01, confidential funds are generally intended for surveillance activities of civilian government agencies, while intelligence funds are intended for intelligence information-gathering activities involving uniformed, military and intelligence personnel with a direct impact on national security.
The controversy became even bigger
The need for clearer rules became more apparent as Congress investigated confidential fund spending by the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education during Sara Duterte’s tenure as vice president and education secretary.
In 2026, COA auditors testified before the Senate impeachment court about the audit of ₱500 million in OVP confidential funds and ₱112.5 million in DepEd confidential funds, or a combined ₱612.5 million.
COA auditor Roderick Wamil said confidential funds are subject to strict accounting and auditing requirements because they involve public money. He also explained that the COA’s audit is a compliance post-audit, meaning auditors examine whether expenditures were properly supported after the money has been disbursed.
The rules specifically restrict confidential funds to authorized activities and prohibit their use for ordinary government expenses such as salaries, wages, representation, consultancy and entertainment, among other limitations.
₱375 million in OVP expenses questioned
During the 2026 impeachment proceedings, Wamil testified that COA had questioned ₱375 million in confidential fund cash advances received by the OVP during the first three quarters of 2023.
The OVP received ₱125 million for each of those three quarters. COA questioned expenses involving rewards, medical and food assistance, and incentives or travel allegedly connected with confidential operations.
COA’s findings later became the subject of further proceedings, with the agency determining that the documentation submitted for certain expenses did not adequately establish compliance with the joint circular.
Separately, COA affirmed a ₱73.287-million notice of disallowance involving OVP confidential fund spending from December 2022. A 2026 COA witness testified that the questioned amount included rewards and purchases that auditors said were not sufficiently supported or were outside the allowable uses under the joint circular. The OVP’s motion for reconsideration remained pending at the time of the testimony.
What could change under revised rules?
The central question is how government agencies can maintain the secrecy necessary for legitimate intelligence and surveillance operations while still giving auditors enough evidence to determine whether taxpayers’ money was properly spent.
Previous discussions on revising the rules included clearer requirements for documentary evidence of payments and separate certification requirements for accountable officers handling confidential and intelligence funds.
Lawmakers have also pushed for stronger congressional oversight and legislation that would require greater disclosure and impose penalties for misuse or misappropriation of confidential and intelligence funds.
The controversy has therefore moved beyond simply asking whether confidential funds should exist. The bigger issue is how these funds can remain confidential without becoming effectively unaccountable.
And that is where COA’s proposed review of the rules could become significant.
The 2015 framework was created almost a decade ago. Since then, the amount and political scrutiny surrounding confidential funds have changed dramatically.
If the rules are finally rewritten, the changes could determine just how much documentation government agencies must provide—and how far auditors can go when billions in public funds are placed under the label of “confidential.”
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