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Bella Cariaso - The Philippine Star
December 12, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Drug dealers and Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) funded Vice President Sara Duterte’s campaign in 2022, a former aide said in a sworn affidavit.
A report published by Politiko online news said that based on a sworn affidavit of former Duterte aide Ramil Lagunoy Madriaga, drug dealers and POGOs sent large amounts of cash to Inday Sara Duterte Is My President (ISIP) movement, which he reportedly helped organize with her former classmates in San Sebastian College of Law, where Madriaga is also said to have graduated.
Duterte was mayor of Davao City when ISIP was organized.
Madriaga’s lawyer Raymund Palad told “Storycon” on One News yesterday that the aide resented being arrested and detained for kidnapping, in a complaint filed by a client of former presidential spokesman Harry Roque.
Palad said they vetted Madriaga’s allegations before taking him on as client.
“The funding for the ISIP Pilipinas national campaign (2021–2022), along with other parallel groups, came from POGO operators and drug dealers,” Madriaga said in his affidavit.
He said the group was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as ISIP Pilipinas, and became a national support network for Duterte’s original presidential bid, with him serving as national convenor.
Madriaga said the group initially received funding from then mayor Sara Duterte and other allied support groups.
The report added that Madriaga was tasked to help form the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG), which handled security and intelligence operations for the Vice President.
Madriaga said he recommended Col. Dennis Nolasco to head the Presidential Security Group. Nolasco allegedly later tapped Col. Raymund Dante Lachica to lead the VPSPG. Madriaga said from July 2022 to April 2023, he worked directly under Nolasco and Lachica.
Based on the Politiko report, part of Madriaga’s work involved transporting large sums of money to different locations on the Vice President’s orders.
Madriaga claimed he brought a duffle bag filled with cash to a comedy bar in Timog area, allegedly owned by and frequented by SSC-Law alumni.
He claimed seeing OVP spokesman Reynold Munsayac, whom he identified as a former classmate of Duterte, inside the bar.
Madriaga said Munsayac allegedly gestured for him to take the bag upstairs and leave it inside an office. Madriaga said he left immediately after completing the task.
‘Preposterous’
Munsayac denied the story: “The concocted story is preposterous. A narration, to be believed, must not only proceed from the mouth of a credible person, but the story must be credible itself. Here, aside from the fact that it comes from a polluted source, the allegations simply defy logic and common human experience. I do not know him personally and never had any dealings with him. My interaction with the group ISIP is limited to Atty. Ryan Quilala.”
Madriaga also claimed he delivered a vehicle containing cash to the Office of the Ombudsman’s parking compound where he was allegedly directed by a guard to a reserved slot, and to place the car keys on top of the left front wheel.
Former Philippine National Police chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. confirmed Madriaga’s involvement in kidnap-for-ransom as well as his arrest in 2023. Madriaga was nabbed together with four other members of his group while planning another kidnapping job, according to Acorda.
VP’s night visits?
Prior to revelations regarding Madriaga’s supposed sworn affidavit, columnist Ramon Tulfo had written about alleged visits at midnight by the Vice President to Madriaga’s jail cell at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan.
“Madriaga is being held in custody pending the conclusion of the kidnapping case filed against him. Now we know the reason for visiting him at night: VP Sara is begging Madriaga to stop talking about the Dutertes’ collusion with drug lords and POGOs,” Tulfo said on Facebook.
“Roque helped big-time POGO operators file kidnapping charges against Madriaga. POGO operators have occupied a vast area of land in Bataan to turn it into a POGO City. Farmers who own vast tracts of land calmed down with the help of Madriaga,” Tulfo added.
He said POGO operators turned on Madriaga, “and charged him with kidnapping with the help of Roque, who served as the POGOs’ lawyer.”
Palad told Storycon that while the Vice President visited Camp Bagong Diwa, she did not meet with Madriaga.
Tulfo said Madriaga was acquitted of a kidnapping case by the Supreme Court in 1997, but still faces other cases. – Emmanuel Tupas
