COA flags Sandiganbayan justices’ foreign trips

The photo of the Commission on Audit's office in Quezon City.

The STAR / Michael Varcas

MANILA, Philippines —  The Sandiganbayan was called out for failing to justify with proper documentation its expenses related to overseas trips of its justices and personnel, as well as organizing events in four-star and five-star venues across the country.

In its annual audit report for the anti-graft court in 2025 published on its website yesterday, the Commission on Audit (COA) reported the “granting and liquidation of CAs (cash advances) for official foreign travels of SB officials and employees for CY (calendar year) 2025, totaling P11,869,847.98, were not fully supported with complete documentary requirements.”

The amount was disbursed for seven foreign trips – mostly conferences and training – to the US state of Missouri; Victoria, Australia; Budapest, Hungary; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Doha in Qatar and Singapore from September to December 2025, according to the COA report.

It noted that the costliest trips were the ones in Hungary at over P2.5 million, Dubai at over P1.88 million and Singapore at over P1.82 million.

“Review of the above-listed CAs revealed that the documentary requirements for granting the said CAs such as: (a) letters of invitation; (b) plane fare quotations and (c) flight itineraries were not submitted,” the COA noted.

From the total amount of over P11.8 million, over P7.1 million lacked narrative reports.

Meanwhile, the cost of roundtrip tickets to Hungary worth P621,783 for the attendance of “three justices” to “a special course” on artificial intelligence in criminal legal profession “could not be determined if within the allowable rates prescribed for foreign travels of officials” under relevant policies of the Sandiganbayan.

According to the anti-graft court’s rules cited by COA, only the presiding justice is entitled to “full business class” while the rest of its workforce should take only “official economy class” in case flights would not be subsidized by the host country or sponsoring organization.

The state auditor also flagged the Sandiganbayan’s “lease of privately-owned venues for various official activities,” which was “not consistently supported with the required justifications and documentary evidence.”

The anti-graft court “entered into 12 contracts with private lessors under negotiated procurement,” wherein a total of P13,649,836.40 was spent to use “mostly five-star and four-star hotels… within and outside Metro Manila” for its various events that included seminars, workshops and its Christmas party in 2025.

Most of the funds were disbursed for the anti-graft court’s “executive briefing and capacity building” held at the heritage-themed Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar resort in Bagac, Bataan with a bill of P5,175,200.

Other activities – including a tree-planting that was included in a special en banc session – were held at five-star hotels, namely Clark Marriott Hotel in Pampanga and Baguio Country Club, and at four-star Seda Vertis North hotel in Quezon City.

“Further examination of DVs (disbursement vouchers) and supporting records disclosed that several transactions were processed without submission of required documents necessary to demonstrate prior consideration of available government-owned venues, written justification establishing that the lease of privately-owned venues was more economical and efficient, or justification supporting the use of four- or five-star hotels,” the COA said.