What's the rationale for spending millions in confidential funds to secure Vice President Sara Duterte in Davao City--her family's political stronghold?

House prosecution panel spokesperson Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong asked this question following Commission on Audit (COA) state auditor Xylene del Campo's recent testimony in Senate impeachment court on the Office of the Vice President's (OVP) usage of confidential funds under article I.

According to De Ocampo, the activities charged to the OVP’s confidential funds--including surveillance and information-gathering activities--were supposedly done in connection with Vice President’s engagements in Davao and elsewhere.

Davao's inclusion doesn't make sense for Adiong, who like the respondent Duterte is a Mindanaoan.

“The safest place, for her is Davao City. Di ba? (Right?) Why would you spend money for, in an area where you feel the safest?” Adiong asked, in reference to the Duterte bailiwick down south.

What's worse was that Adiong said it seemed only the Vice President benefitted from the expenditure of the confidential fund, with no benefits to speak of for the public.

"Yung pagpunta niya doon sa Davao na safe siya (As to her trip to Davao where she was safe), so it actually benefited herself and her office by securing the security of the Vice President. What did the country obtain and gain from that? Anong nakuha natin doon as a benefit and as an advantage? (What did we get as benefit and as an advantage)," Adiong said.

He says the issue is not simply whether the OVP provided security for the Vice President; he says it's whether or not the confidential funds produced an intelligence or security benefit beyond what regular government security agencies were already providing.

Under article I of the impeachment charges, prosecutors allege “systematic misuse” of P612.5 million confidential funds between December 2022 and the third quarter of 2023 — an act they say constitutes culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust.

Adiong pointed out that the OVP does not have a direct mandate over security matters and should only support the police and military by providing intelligence or assistance that supplements their existing work.

“You cannot just replicate what they have been doing regularly,” he said.

He cited respondent Duterte’s attendance at an inauguration in Davao as an example. He says the police could provide the necessary security without the need to tap the secret fund.

“If she attends the Davao inauguration, whatever bridge that they want to inaugurate, kayang-kayang ng police work (police work would suffice). You don’t need to spend millions for that,” Adiong said.

Before being elected Vice President in 2022, Duterte served as Davao City mayor from 2010 to 2013, and again from 2016 to 2022. She was also vice mayor from 2007 to 2010.

Her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, was elected as mayor in 2025. Her brother, Sebastian "Baste" Duterte replaced the latter as acting mayor when the family patriarch was arrested and brought the International Criminal Court (ICC) for trial for crimes against humanity.