Multiple Facebook posts are being circulated, claiming that the Office of the Vice President has a clear and clean audit record and that Vice President Sara Duterte has received the “highest” audit rating from the Commission on Audit. This needs context.
First published on March 20, the FB status has a caption that read:
“Lumabas na ang COA audit ng OVP very clear and clean ang record ni VP inday, and for the first time in history na ang VP ang may pinakamataas na audit sa COA, ibig sabihin kahit peso walang ninakaw ang ating VP Sara
(The Commission on Audit report on the Office of the Vice President is out and Vice President Inday’s record is very clear and clean, and for the first time in history the VP has the highest audit rating from COA, meaning not even a single peso was stolen by our VP Sara).”
Other posts with the identical text began appearing the following day, with one posted as a reel, copied word-for-word from the first published post.
While it is true that the OVP received an “unmodified opinion” from COA for three consecutive years, from 2022 to 2024, the commission has been clear that such a rating does not necessarily mean there were no misstatements found during the audit, nor were there no uncorrected misstatements at year-end.
The commission added that this opinion does not guarantee the audited agency’s full compliance with laws and regulations, or the efficient and effective use of funds in its programs and projects.
In addition, the COA has officially clarified that its audit opinions are not scores or rankings, but technical assessments of financial statements. An unmodified opinion is simply the standard favorable outcome of a government financial audit, not a historic achievement.
The claim that the OVP’s result is “the first time in history” is likewise unsupported. COA had issued the same unmodified opinion to the OVP in previous years, including under former vice president Leni Robredo.
Despite the favorable opinion, the OVP’s audit flagged several findings. These included P3.4 million in livelihood funds released without verifying project viability or a written agreement with partner agencies, post-release home visits conducted for only 11 of 83 beneficiaries, documentation deficiencies in P110 million worth of welfare goods, and a recording error logging donated photocopiers as laptops.
The posts surfaced days after the vice president filed her consolidated Answer Ad Cautelam before the House Committee on Justice on March 16.
The post published by Kiko Barzaga Fans (created on Sept. 13, 2025) and multiple FB users collectively garnered 255,774 reactions; 22,141 comments; and 18,818 shares.
