Davao City appears to have spent the largest amount of confidential funds among the country’s cities and municipalities between 2016 and 2022, according to Commission on Audit (COA) records.
This was under Mayor Sara Duterte, who is now the Vice President of the Philippines.
According to the COA report, Davao City’s confidential spending more than doubled when Duterte took over the mayorship from her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.
A review of the COA’s annual audit reports (AARs) on Davao City revealed a total of P2.697 billion in confidential expenses from 2016 to 2022, far exceeding the CF spending of other larger and wealthier local government units (LGUs) like Cebu City, Quezon City, Manila, and Makati City during the same period.
During the first full term of the younger Duterte as mayor, Davao City’s confidential spending skyrocketed to P293 million in 2017, an increase of 103.5 percent from P144 million in 2016.
On June 30, 2016, Duterte took over as mayor of Davao City. The city’s confidential expenses increased to P420 million in 2018, and then to P460 million every year from 2019 through 2022.
A review of the COA data on Cebu City, the wealthiest city in the Visayas region, revealed that it only spent P13.3 million on CF over the last seven years.
