MANILA (September 11) — A clear majority of Filipinos want Vice President Sara Duterte to return PHP73 million in confidential funds disallowed by the Commission on Audit (COA), a nationwide survey showed.
The August 2026 National Momentum Survey by Momentum Research found that 64 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Duterte should return the money to the national government.
Only 24 percent opposed the move, while 8.9 percent were unsure and 3.1 percent declined to answer.
The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,487 Filipino adults from Aug. 18 to 23. It has a national margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
Momentum Research said the question referred to the COA Commission Proper’s final decision upholding a notice of disallowance involving the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
COA, according to the research firm, found that the OVP had not submitted sufficient documentation showing how the funds were spent or proving that they were used for confidential activities as required under Joint Circular 2015-01.
Mindanao bucks the national trend
The strongest support for repayment came from the Visayas, where 73.5 percent backed the move.
Support reached 68.7 percent in the rest of Luzon and 64.3 percent in Metro Manila.
Mindanao was the outlier. Only 46.7 percent of respondents there said Duterte should return the funds, while 36.6 percent opposed repayment. The rest were unsure or declined to answer.
The result stands out because Mindanao has long been a political stronghold of the Duterte family. It was also the only major region where support for repayment fell short of a majority.
Even Duterte supporters are divided
The issue also split respondents along political lines.
Among pro-Duterte respondents, 50.5 percent supported repayment, compared with 39.3 percent who opposed it.
Support was far higher among pro-opposition respondents at 82.3 percent. It reached 73 percent among pro-Marcos respondents and 68.4 percent among independents.
The figures show that calls for repayment extend beyond the opposition, although support is markedly weaker among Duterte’s own backers.
Younger voters more likely to demand repayment
Age produced another sharp divide.
Among Generation Z respondents, 78 percent favored repayment.
That figure dropped to 60.3 percent among millennials and 56.1 percent among Generation X respondents.
Among baby boomers and members of the Silent Generation, 52.7 percent supported the move—a result Momentum Research said did not amount to a clear majority once the margin of error was considered.
The pattern was consistent: younger Filipinos were more likely than older respondents to say Duterte should return the funds.
Subnational results carry wider margins
The survey’s national margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, but the margins were wider by region: 6.9 points in Metro Manila, 3.8 points in the rest of Luzon, 5.8 points in the Visayas and 5.5 points in Mindanao, all at a 95 percent confidence level.
The survey captures public opinion on whether Duterte should return the money. It does not, by itself, establish that the funds were illegally or improperly spent.
The underlying dispute remains COA’s disallowance involving the OVP and the agency’s finding that the documentation did not adequately support the use of the confidential funds.
