April 15, 2026
MANILA – Ramil Madriaga disputed reports that confidential funds (CF) lodged within the Office of the Vice President (OVP) under Vice President Sara Duterte in 2022 were spent in 11 days, noting that he liquidated the entire amount in less than a day.
During the House of Representatives’ committee on justice hearing on impeachment complaints against Duterte, Madriaga detailed how he processed the CF disbursements, noting that he made separate cash deliveries to San Pablo, Laguna, Nightstrip, and the Office of the Ombudsman.
Years after the deliveries, Madriaga said he heard media reports that the confidential funds were spent in 11 days, which he said were not true, as he disposed of the money in less than 24 hours, on December 20, 2022.
“A few years later, I read from several media reports that the P125 million OVP confidential funds in 2022 were reportedly utilized in just eleven (11) days. This is wrong because I personally disposed of the money in less than 24 hours,” he said.
Madriaga was referring to the discussions on the proposed 2024 national budget last September 2023, wherein former Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo confirmed that OVP under Duterte spent the P125 million CF in just 11 days.
Quimbo said this after being asked by Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas during plenary deliberations on the Commission on Audit (COA) budget. Quimbo was defending the COA allocations on the plenary level.
Aside from the testimony about the confidential fund disbursement, Madriaga provided details regarding the deliveries — from Duterte allegedly calling him to coordinate with Col. Dennis Nolasco about delivering cash to allies as a way of “giving back.”
“In the morning of December 20, 2022, Sara called me, and she said, ‘Sir Ram, please coordinate with Col. Nolasco. Meron tayong deliver sa San Pablo, Laguna, sa Nightstrip, at sa Ombudsman.’ Sara added, ‘bawi tayo sa kanila’. Later, I received a text message from her indicating the places of delivery, which include: (a) San Pablo, Laguna, (b) Nightstrip, and (c) Office of the Ombudsman (‘OMB’), and the corresponding contact numbers,” Madriaga said.
“Later that morning, Col. Nolasco sent me a text message directing me to go to DepEd Central Office in Pasig City beside Ultra at around 1:30 p.m for a ‘transport’. Transport is short-hand for delivery or transportation of large sums of money between Col. Nolasco and me, upon the instructions of Sara,” he added.
Madriaga said four large dark bags were unloaded from the vehicles: three were dark and one was light-colored, each containing around P30 million to P35 million.
Three deliveries were made: one to San Pablo, Laguna, Nommu Basho in Tomas Morato, Quezon City, and the remaining bags to the Ombudsman parking lot.
At the San Pablo delivery, Madriaga said they were diverted to Cabuyao, Laguna, to meet a politician, where he saw “three persons standing in wait beside a dark sports utility vehicle,” where one went to the Toyota Grandia used to deliver the money, and “took one of the bags.”
At the Nommu Basho, Madriaga said that it was former OVP Spokesperson Reynold Munsayac who met him at the Nightstrip, a comedy bar supposedly frequented by San Sebastian College of Law alumni.
For the last delivery at the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City, Madriaga said a guard “gave a signal directing us to park in a specific area in the OMB Parking lot.”
“We proceeded to the specific area and parked the Red Mazda Sedan where the remaining two bags of money were placed. We left the keys on top of the left front wheel which is our usual practice when delivering large amounts of money,” Madriaga said.
“Previously and upon direct instructions of PRRD (former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte) or Sara, I have also delivered money to Ombudsman Samuel Martires or Atty. Ryan which I usually placed inside an open trunk of a designated car,” he added.
More details about his relationship with the Dutertes were revealed by Ramil Madriaga on Tuesday, as he testified before the House committee on justice.
At one point, Madriaga said that former president Rodrigo Duterte preferred his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, to succeed him in politics rather than his sons.
According to Madriaga, he was introduced to Duterte by former Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez between late 2015 to 2016 when the former lawmaker decided to support Duterte’s presidential bid.
Eventually, Madriaga said he was assigned as a counterintelligence agent for the National Security Council, but never got paid through official channels. Later on, he was assigned by the former president to support Vice President Duterte’s Davao City mayoral bid.
The older Duterte also supposedly asked Madriaga to profile individuals associated with the Vice President, because she was the Duterte patriarch’s favorite — instead of Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte, whom he called ‘crazy’ and Davao Mayor Sebastian Duterte, who was called ‘gay.’
Madriaga’s testimony has been long-awaited by several sectors, as many consider his allegations as the missing portion regarding allegations of confidential fund (CF) misuse.
According to the complainants from the third group, Madriaga’s claims is a clear confirmation of how Duterte “actually converted and diverted the subject confidential funds for her own personal use, contrary to the actual purposes for which the same was earmarked for and/ or purportedly disbursed.”
Duterte has filed perjury complaints against Madriaga, denying his allegations and tagging him as part of a kidnap-for-ransom group that was planning to assassinate her.