FACT-CHECK: Social media user exaggerates audit findings on VP’s office

CLAIM: The Commission on Audit has cleared the vice president of any wrongdoing

RATING: MISSING CONTEXT

A Facebook user falsely claimed that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) was declared to be an example of “clean and honest” government by the Commission of Audit (COA) in 2023.

In a Facebook reel, the user posted a screenshot of COA’s transmittal letter of its audit of the finances of the office of Vice President Sara Duterte. 

The post highlighted the statement “In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of OVP as at December 31, 2023.” 

The reel was also misleadingly captioned with the words, “VP Sara has Clean and Honest Government according to COA.”

While COA did provide an “unmodified opinion” of the OVP’s financial statements, this does not clear the office of irregularities.

COA has clarified that an unmodified opinion “does not necessarily mean that there were no misstatements found during the audit nor there were no uncorrected misstatements as at year-end.”

The commission has also stated that such audit opinion “does not entail that the audited agency fully complies with all the laws, rules, and regulations or that the uses of funds on the agency’s programs, projects, and activities are economical, effective, or efficient.”

As of posting time, the Facebook reel has amassed 13,700 reactions and 17,000 shares. Lance Isaac Reamon

PressOne.PH is a verified signatory of the Code of Principles of the International Fact -Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter. The code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network is a series of commitments organizations abide by to promote excellence in fact-checking. We believe nonpartisan and transparent fact-checking can be a powerful instrument of accountability journalism..

PressOne.PH believes that fact-checking is essential to combating misinformation and disinformation, and in informing and educating citizens and voters. Read more of PressOne.PH’s Fact-Checking Policy by clicking here.

The public is welcome to send feedback or requests for fact-checks at factcheck@pressone.ph.

If you believe PressOne.PH is violating the Code of Principles of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), you may submit a complaint directly to the IFCN website: https://ifcncodeofprinciples.poynter.org/complaints-policy