More than half of DepEd confidential fund payees ‘non-existent’ – lawmaker

Metro Manila, Philippines — More than half of confidential fund payees of the Department of Education (DepEd) during the agency leadership of Vice President Sara Duterte do not exist based on official records, a lawmaker said on Monday, Dec. 9.

Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua, chairperson of the House committee on good government and public accountability, disclosed in a hearing about the results of an earlier request to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to verify more than 600 names in the DepEd confidential fund acknowledgement receipts.

“At dito kanila [PSA] pong sinasabi na out of 677 individuals, 405 ay walang birth certificate o walang record sa birth certificate o pwede nating sabihin na non-existent,” Chua said during the panel hearing.

[Translation: The PSA said that out of 677 individuals, 405 do not have birth certificates or birth records, or we can say non-existent.]

Chua’s request for the verification of other names to the PSA was in light of the confirmed non-existence of Mary Grace Piattos and Kokoy Villamin in the agency database.

The name Mary Grace Piattos surfaced when Antipolo 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop called out the seeming combination of restaurant and snack names.

The name Kokoy Villamin, on the other hand, was on the acknowledgement receipts of both the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and DepEd, but the handwriting and signatures were different.

Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Adiong presented more acknowledgement receipts.

There were receipts named under a certain Alice Crescencio and Milky Secuya. Both had different signatures in the documents.

Other receipts, meanwhile, have different names but with identical signatures.

“Just because the issue involves confidential funds, doesn't mean we can ignore, exploit, and essentially invent acknowledgement receipts which under the joint circular are proof of payment,” Adiong said.

Lawmakers also noted other acknowledgement receipts have no date, name, or signature.

During the year-ender panel hearing, lawmakers said Duterte and her employees who were involved in the confidential fund controversy may face technical malversation, bribery, and plunder, among others.

“'Yung bise presidente (The vice president), she cheated the Filipino people of funds that could have gone to several social services,” Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel said.

“Let me remind the public of what is at stake here. It would constitute graft and corruption if public funds are misused or misappropriated or worse, if funds are diverted to personal use or benefit, and given the amount we are talking about here, this is clearly plunder,” Acop said.

The panel has been holding an inquiry on the supposed mismanagement of the OVP and DepEd confidential funds amounting to P612.5 million.