House checks if OVP, DepEd secret fund recipients actually got the money

MANILA, Philippines—The House of Representatives has shifted its attention to checking whether legitimate individuals who allegedly received confidential funds (CF) under Vice President Sara Duterte’s offices actually received the money intended for them.

In a press briefing on Monday, La Union 1st District Rep. Paolo Ortega V said that while the focus has been on acknowledgment receipt (AR) signatories with allegedly fictitious names, over 600 individuals whose identities exist within the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) registry.

Ortega said the next step is to check whether they really received CF allocations from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) or if their names were only used to facilitate disbursement.

“We have seen a trend where most of them do not have birth, death, and marriage records with PSA.  But as I have said, it’s good to check on the 600-plus other individuals in our records.  Because we also have to ascertain if they received funds,” he said in Filipino.

“So that we will not just focus on those with no real names.  So we will look into that as part of our continuing work here at the House of Representatives,” he added.

AR signatories

According to Ortega, the names were part of the ARs being reviewed by the House committee on good government and public accountability — the panel that probed the allegedly anomalous CF usage of Duterte’s offices.

The lawmaker said they might ask the PSA for more details on the AR signatories whose names match those in the government database.

"There are more or less 600-plus names with the OVP, then 200-plus with the DepEd.  As these were unveiled during the committee hearing and submitted there, we will ask PSA about them.  Maybe we will do our mini-investigation, but the names were submitted and discussed already at the committee level na," he said.

Issues about alleged fictitious signatories to OVP and DepEd ARs came out after Antipolo City 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop noticed that one of the individuals who signed was named Mary Grace Piattos — a name similar to a restaurant and a potato chip — who signed off an AR from the OVP.

Later on, Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong showed two ARs — one for OVP and another for DepEd — which were both received by a certain Kokoy Villamin.  However, the signatures and handwriting used by Villamin in the two documents differed.

READ: House probe: OVP-DepEd CFs received by same man, different signatures

Weird names

Since these discoveries, more weird names have popped up.

On Sunday, Ortega released the most recent batch of weird names — including multiple “Fionas” or a character from fantasy film Shrek;  a “Magellan,” which refers to Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan who landed in Leyte in 1521; and another individual with the surname “Ewan,” which is a Filipino slang for ‘I don’t know.’

READ: ‘Magellan,’ ‘Fiona’ found on list of VP Duterte secret fund recipients

Previously, Ortega also released a set of names said to be from a grocery shopping list, while some names sounded like a phone brand — Xiaome Ocho.

READ: Piattos’ kin, ‘Xiaome Ocho’ also got VP Sara Duterte’s funds – Ortega

Despite Duterte’s silence regarding the allegedly fictitious names, Ortega is optimistic that questions will be answered once the impeachment trial against the Vice President starts.

Impeached by House

Duterte was impeached by the House last February 5, after 215 lawmakers filed and verified a fourth impeachment complaint, hinged on several issues like alleged misuse of confidential funds lodged within her offices, threats to ranking officials, including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and conduct unbecoming of a Vice President.

“These will come out during the trial.  It’s either they received money or not.  What we are sure of right now is that the fictitious names most likely did not receive any funds, maybe they were used to ensure that the list of names will be filled up,” Ortega said in Filipino.

“But again, we will have an impeachment trial.  So, the many questions, maybe 90 percent of your queries about confidential funds will be answered there,” he added.

(2025/04/07-13:25)