House panel seeks PSA verification for 1,992 names tied to alleged OVP secret fund anomaly
THE House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability has once again turned to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), this time to verify the civil registry records of 1,992 individuals linked to P500 million in confidential funds allegedly spent by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) under Vice President Sara Duterte.
“May we request for the verification of the Civil Registry Documents (birth, marriage, and death) of the names in the attached list relative to the investigation being conducted by the Committee,” committee chair Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua said in his December 9 letter to National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Claire Dennis Mapa.
The request comes in the wake of a PSA report that revealed glaring discrepancies in an earlier batch of names tied to P112.5 million in confidential funds disbursed by the Department of Education (DepEd) during Duterte’s term as Secretary in 2023.
Out of the 667 names examined, 405 had no birth records, 445 lacked marriage certificates, and 508 had no death certificates.
This time, the names under scrutiny appear on acknowledgment receipts (ARs) submitted by the OVP to the Commission on Audit (CoA) to justify confidential fund expenditures spanning late 2022 to the third quarter of 2023.
Chua underscored the importance of PSA verification in uncovering potential irregularities.
“A certification that these names are not in the PSA database would bolster suspicions that they do not exist and that the ARs were fabricated to justify confidential fund expenditures by the OVP and DepEd under Vice President Duterte,” Chua said.
The ARs, which serve as documentation for the distribution of funds, are now under intense scrutiny after discrepancies in the records pointed to potential fabrication.
Adding to the controversy is the discovery that “Mary Grace Piattos,” a name listed in the ARs does not exist in the PSA database.
Her unusual similarity to a popular restaurant and a snack brand raised public suspicion and became a symbol of the alleged irregularities.
Lawmakers suspect that many, if not all, of the names may be fictitious, pointing to what they believe is a systematic misuse of public funds.
