A months-old clip of Sen. Rodante Marcoleta supposedly “revealing” an issue on confidential funds during Mamamayang Liberal Partylist Rep. Leila de Lima’s term as Justice secretary is circulating on Facebook. This needs context.
The Commission on Audit indeed flagged the Department of Justice over its failure to liquidate P123.8 million in cash advances and submit disbursement vouchers (DVs) for P91.8 million worth of confidential funds in 2015. However, all of these have since been resolved by the DOJ, based on 2016 and 2018 COA audit reports. De Lima served as Justice secretary from July 1, 2010 to Oct. 11, 2015.
These are also not “recent” revelations. News organizations reported on the issue at the time.
A reader sent a request to VERA Files’ Messenger Misinformation Tipline to verify the claim made in an Aug. 12 FB video. The clip shows Marcoleta detailing the issue, and carried a caption that read:
“‘CONFIDENTIAL FUNDS NI DE LIMA ISINIWALAT NI MARCOLETA’ (Marcoleta revealed De Lima’s confidential funds)
TIGNAN: Matapos punahin ng mga kritiko ang confidential funds ni VP Sara Duterte na isa sa dahilan kung bakit nagkaroon ng impeachment complaint, isang pagsisiwalat ni congressman at ngayo’y Sen. Rodante Marcoleta ang umanoy issue ng confidential funds ni ML Partylist Rep. Leila De Lima noong nanilbihan pa ito sa DOJ taong 2015. (Look: After critics raised concerns over VP Sara Duterte’s confidential funds, one of the reasons behind the filing of an impeachment complaint, Congressman and now Sen. Rodante Marcoleta revealed the alleged issue of confidential funds of ML Party-list Rep. Leila De Lima during her tenure in DOH in 2015)
According to the Commission on Audit’s (COA) 2015 Annual Report, the Department of Justice (DOJ) under then-Secretary Leila de Lima failed to liquidate a total of ₱120 million in cash advances due to the absence of official receipts. In addition, the report flagged ₱91.8 million in confidential funds that lacked disbursement vouchers to support how the money was spent.
Anong opinion ninyo dito mga kabisakol? (What’s your opinion on this, fellow Bicolanos?)”
Another FB page republished the video on Aug. 13 with this caption:
“Aray ko May Tinatago ka palang Confidential funds delima kung Hindi naging senador si Atty marcoleta Hindi Malaman Ng Taong bayan ito!“
(Ouch! So you were hiding confidential funds, De Lima. If Atty. Marcoleta had not become a senator, the public would never have known about this!”)
COA: 2015 issues already resolved
State auditors noted in their 2016 report that “all paid DVs for confidential funds were already submitted to COA,” referring to the disbursement vouchers for P91.8 million that were not submitted the previous year.
On the issue of over P123.8 million unliquidated cash advances for the DOJ’s 2015 confidential funds, the COA stated in its 2018 report that its recommended actions to the department have already been “fully implemented.”
The DOJ said that “no additional cash advance was issued to a [Special Disbursing Officer] if there is an existing/unliquidated cash advance.”
Marcoleta’s ‘revelation’ is not recent
Contrary to what the FB posts claimed, these issues were not recently discovered and revealed to the public.
News organizations reported about the DOJ’s 2015 confidential funds irregularities shortly after COA published its findings in May 2016. Among those that reported on it were Politiko and Manila Bulletin.
Even the circulating clip of Marcoleta is old, sourced from a political talk show published on Dec. 6, 2024. There, he compared the DOJ’s unliquidated confidential funds in 2015 with the issues being faced by the current Office of the Vice President under Sara Duterte, who faced allegations of fabricating receipts and using fictitious names to liquidate the OVP’s confidential funds.
The FB posts surfaced after de Lima said in an Aug. 12 privilege speech that the Senate has moved “heaven and earth to render extraordinary protection to the Vice President,” following the upper chamber’s archival of the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte.
Published by FB user Headlines Bisakol (created on March 15, 2020) and FB page Trending News (created on April 7, 2025), the two videos have been viewed over 1.8 million times collectively. They have garnered 53,700 reactions, 2,426 comments, and 11,404 shares as of writing.
