PSA requested to verify 1,992 names of alleged OVP confidential fund recipients

December 10, 2024 | 6:00pm

MANILA, Philippines — The House good government committee asked the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Monday, December 9, to verify 1,992 names of individuals who allegedly received confidential fund payments from the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

The nearly 2,000 names appeared in the acknowledgment receipts submitted by the OVP to the Commission on Audit (COA) to justify their expenditure for confidential activities.  

The OVP spent P500 million in confidential and intelligence funds from December 2022 up to the third quarter of 2023. COA flagged P73 million of the P125 million used in 11 days in 2022 as irregular or inappropriate. 

This came after the panel’s ongoing investigation into Vice President Sara Duterte’s use of confidential funds, during which the PSA checked 677 names linked to Department of Education confidential fund disbursements.

Rep. Joel Chua (Manila, 3rd District), chair of the good government committee, stressed the importance of verifying the existence of recipients, citing recent PSA findings.

Of the 677 names checked in the Civil Registry System, the PSA found that 405, or 60%, were “non-existent,” with no record of a birth certificate.

Lawmakers interpreted this as evidence that the majority of names were “fraudulent” or linked to fake identities.

RELATED: No record of 60% of 677 alleged DepEd confidential fund recipients — PSA

“A certification that these names are not in the PSA database would bolster suspicions that they do not exist and that the acknowledgment receipts were fabricated to justify confidential fund expenditures by the OVP and DepEd under Vice President Duterte,” Chua said in a statement.

According to Joint Circular 2015-01, which outlines guidelines for confidential fund use, acknowledgment receipts as documentary evidence for expenditures. 

The circular requires special disbursing officers to submit these receipts in sealed envelopes marked “confidential” and store them in a vault.

Verification of these documents began after the good government committee identified inaccuracies and identical handwriting in several receipts.

The most striking finding for the committee, however, was the “fictitious” name “Mary Grace Piattos,” which they think could be a combination of a local café’s name and a potato chip brand.

Duterte now faces two impeachment complaints, both citing abuse of confidential funds due to the “anomalies” found in the receipts and the “negligent” handling of funds.