House to PSA: Verify 1,992 payees of OVP confidential funds

Metro Manila, Philippines — The identities of nearly 2,000 more people who received confidential funds from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) are up for verification with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), according to a letter request from the House of Representatives.

Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua, committee on good government and public accountability chairman, wrote to National Statistician Dennis Mapa on Dec. 9, asking for the verification of 1,992 names. A copy of the letter was sent to reporters on Tuesday, Dec. 10.

Chua’s request came on the heels of a PSA response to an earlier verification request that 405 out of 677 names in the acknowledgement receipts of the Department of Education (DepEd), under then secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte, are non-existent.

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

The names Mary Grace Piattos and Kokoy Villamin were in the ARs but the PSA said these were not in its database

A lawmaker pointed out in one of the hearings that Mary Grace Piattos seemed like a combination of a restaurant and snack brands.

Kokoy Villamin, meanwhile, was on the acknowledgement receipts of both the OVP and DepEd but the handwriting and signature in the documents were different.

House lawmakers flagged other AR issues such as different people with similar signatures and no date, name, or signature.

The committee has been looking into the supposed mismanagement of the P612.5-million confidential funds of the OVP and DepEd.