The Commission on Audit (COA) flagged irregularities involving a ₱168-million in relief operations carried out by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) back in 2025.
In a 273-page report on the 2025 Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (DRRMF), the commission pointed to inconsistencies, guideline deviations, and incomplete or altogether missing documentation in relation to the said funds.
The COA report indicated inadequacies in the OVP’s implementation of relief operations in the previous year, including discrepancies in the brief summaries explaining a situation amid a crisis or during operations (situational reports or SitReps); departures from approved mission orders; the issuance of mission orders lacking fixed limits, set end dates, or predetermined restrictions (open-ended); missing records relating to beneficiaries and distribution logging; and other incomplete or missing required documents.
This violates Section 9.0 of the Policy Manual on Disaster Operations Programs and Section G of OVP Office Order No. 2025-74.
“Audit noted discrepancies between the SitReps prepared by the agencies/LGUs concerned and those prepared by the OVP for relief operations involving welfare goods amounting to ₱19.67 million. Differences were observed in the reported number of affected families, while some agency/LGU SitReps did not indicate beneficiary counts,” the COA wrote.
While this was attributed to “evolving disaster conditions,” the OVP failed to provide supporting documents for these.
“Twenty-four relief operations involving welfare goods amounting to ₱39,009,054.98 deviated from the approved Mission Orders without documented approval,” the commission said of the deviations from Mission Orders.
“Eight Mission Orders covering relief distributions amounting to ₱84,118,147.06 did not specify the target beneficiaries and merely directed the distribution of relief goods to affected or displaced families,” COA explained regarding the “open-ended” Mission Orders.
Although the OVP claimed this allowed for operational flexibility during emergencies, it failed to define beneficiary targets, “weakening” the basis for the office’s chosen quantities of relief goods distributed.
“Audit identified several deficiencies in beneficiary documentation, including uncertified Master Lists, discrepancies between Relief Distribution Sheets (RDS) and Master Lists, incomplete beneficiary information, duplicate entries, unsigned RDS, and use of inappropriate documentary requirements prescribed for Relief for Indigents and Individuals in Crises and Emergencies (RIICE).”
Moreover, OVP relief operations reportedly aiding 33,980 beneficiaries and welfare goods amounting to ₱25,272,392.42 were not backed by complete pre-operation documents, like SitReps and Mission Orders.
“In one instance, the required RDS was unavailable due to records reportedly lost during Typhoon Kristine and was replaced with explanatory and certification documents,” COA found.
These irregularities undermined the assurance on relief distribution record completeness, verifiability, and reliability, the commission declared, as well as weakened controls over the OVP’s relief operations.
COA recommended that the OVP strengthen its review procedures over relief operations and ensure that documentation is complete, consistent, and accurate.
