No PSA records of 400 names in DepEd secret fund’s receipts 鈥� solon
Rep. Joel Chue. | PHOTO: Official Facebook page of the House of Representatives of the Philippines
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has no records of the more than 400 names on the acknowledgment receipts for the confidential fund of the Department of Education (DepEd).
Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua revealed this information on Monday, in his opening speech during the eighth hearing of the House committee on good government and public accountability, which has been looking into alleged irregularities in the utilization of public funds with the DepEd and the Office of the Vice President (OVP) under Sara Duterte.
“[T]ayo po ay sumulat upang isumite ang 677 pang pangalan na nakalagay sa acknowledgement receipt ng DepEd kung saan tayo po ay binigyan ng tugon ng Philippine Statistics Authority, dated December 8, 2024,” Chua said.
(We wrote to submit the 677 more names on the acknowledgment receipts of DepEd, and the Philippine Statistics Authority replied on December 8, 2024.)
READ: Mary Grace Piattos being fake has serious implications for OVP
Article continues after this advertisement“At dito kanilang pong sinasabi na out of 677 individuals, 405 ay walang birth certificate o walang record sa birth certificate o pwede nating sabihin na nonexistent,” he added.
(In the reply, the PSA said that of the 677 individuals, 405 do not have birth certificates or no records of birth certificates, or what we can call non-existent.)
Earlier, Chua also released a document indicating that the name “Mary Grace Piattos” has no record with the PSA.
In a certification issued November 25, 2024, the PSA attested that a certain Mary Grace Piattos has a “negative record” of birth, marriage, and death in the “PSA Civil Registry System database.”
READ: No record of a ‘Mary Grace Piattos’ – PSA
The name Mary Grace Piattos surfaced during the investigation of the panel on the alleged misuse of public money – specifically, confidential funds – with the OVP and DepEd under the helm of Vice President Sara Duterte.
She was supposedly the person who signed acknowledgment receipts of money from the OVP’s confidential fund. The acknowledgment receipts were part of the liquidation reports submitted to the House panel as it tackled the 158 receipts that covered OVP confidential funds amounting to P23.8 million.
Antipolo 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop was the one who pointed out to the Commission on Audit that several acknowledgment receipts were signed by a certain Mary Grace Piattos.
During the panel’s November 5 hearing, Acop expressed doubts about whether she is a legitimate identity, as the signatory’s first name is similar to a popular coffee shop and restaurant, while her last name is the same as a famous potato chip brand.
