House panel checking 677 recipients of VP Duterte secret funds
Vice President Sara Z. Duterte during her press conference at the Office of the Vice President, Robinsons Cybergate Plaza, Mandaluyong City. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON
A House committee has asked for the verification of the identities of 677 people, who were supposed to be beneficiaries of the confidential funds of Vice President Sara Duterte, by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Its findings could either boost or weaken parts of the evidence in two impeachment complaints against her.
The names were included by the committee on good government and public accountability in a letter on Friday to National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa after the PSA reported that at least two names they had checked—Mary Grace Piattos and Kokoy Villamin—did not exist in the national civil registry.
‘Deeply troubling’
“This is deeply troubling,” panel chair and Manila Rep. Joel Chua said in a statement. “If Mary Grace Piattos doesn’t exist in official records, we have to question whether the other 677 names are legitimate or if they are part of a wider scheme to misuse funds.”
READ: 2nd complaint presses VP Duterte on P125M spent in 11 days
“Ensuring the authenticity of these recipients is crucial for maintaining transparency and accountability in the use of public funds. We are committed to uncovering the truth behind these transactions,” he added.
Article continues after this advertisementThe impeachment complaints filed separately this week by various progressive groups and individuals, accused Duterte of, among other offenses, misusing P612.5 million in confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd).
Article continues after this advertisementThe committee’s inquiry found that “Piattos” received P70,000 in “medicines” from the OVP, one of the largest single amounts given to a “beneficiary” of the Vice President’s confidential fund of P125 million in 2022, which was all spent in just 11 days in December that year.
“Villamin” received two separate amounts—one each from the OVP and DepEd—but had signed off with two different signatures.
This finding led lawmakers to believe that the OVP and DepEd under Duterte may have crafted a scheme to use fictitious names in acknowledgement receipts (ARs) to justify confidential fund expenditures from late 2022 to the third quarter of 2023.
In addition to the P125 million she spent at the end of her first six months in office, Duterte used P375 million of the OVP’s P500-million confidential fund allotment in 2023 and P112.5 million of DepEd’s P150-million allocation in the same year.
Review evidence
At a press conference they called earlier this week, Deputy Majority Leader Jude Acidre and Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman, expressed concern about the possibility that the ARs may be bogus and therefore a ground for impeaching the Vice President.
“Possibly this can be used as evidence, but of course we will have to review that,” Roman said.
For Acidre, the “most concrete basis” of public trust is how public funds are used by government officials.
“If there are fabricated ARs, there is proof of wasteful spending. I think this is in plain sight, a clear betrayal of public trust,” he said.
At the very least, Acidre said, the falsification of ARs could constitute technical malversation.
“Piattos”—an amalgam of a popular cafe and a brand of chips—signed an AR dated Dec. 30, 2022, as one of the beneficiaries of the P125-million confidential funds of the OVP.
Initialed, no signatures
The OVP’s special disbursing officer, Gina Acosta, earlier told lawmakers that she did not know Piattos but said there was such a surname in Davao City, her hometown, where the Vice President once served as mayor. An Inquirer search found no one with that name, which is spelled with a double “T,” in Davao.
Mapa earlier issued a certification confirming no birth, marriage, or death records for a “Mary Grace Piattos.”
Most of the ARs submitted by the OVP were only initialed or had no signatures at all.
The House, seeing that the OVP and DepEd did not directly have national security or law enforcement mandates, decided not to give her these secret discretionary funds in the 2024 budget.
The scrapping of the confidential funds by the House led by President Marcos’ cousin, Speaker Martin Romualdez, was one of the irritants in the Marcos-Duterte alliance, which led to the breakup of the ties between the country’s two highest officials that won a landslide victory in the 2022 elections.
Duterte finally broke away from the Marcos administration when she resigned from the Cabinet as education secretary in June. Her supporters now consider her the top leader of the opposition to the administration.
She has come under investigation for her disclosure that she had contracted an assassin to kill the President, first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and Romualdez if she is killed first in an alleged plot against her.
