MANILA, Philippines — House lawmakers, hungry for answers on how Vice President Sara Duterte spent P125 million from her office’s confidential funds, withdrew P1 million from their pockets as cash reward for anyone who could produce “Mary Grace Piattos.” », an alleged beneficiary of part of this fund spent in just 11 days in December 2022.

Piattos’ alleged first name resembles that of a restaurant chain and his alleged last name resembles that of a brand of chips.

That full name was among the signatories to the more than 1,200 defective acknowledgments that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) submitted to the Commission on Audit (COA) in an attempt to justify its P125 million expenditure.

READ: COA: OVP sent defective receipts on secret funds

The COA had also noted that the amounts corresponding to the deficit receipts were part of the P73 million it disallowed from the 2022 confidential funds.

Questionable receipts

Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop, who questioned Piattos’ identity during a Nov. 5 hearing by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, said his accused receipt was among 787 others also subject to the COA which bore only signatures and no name, or vice versa, and 302 receipts with illegible or questionable names.

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Other documents had names similar to snack brands such as “Nova”, “Oishi” and “Tempura”. A handful of them only had initials such as “AAS” and “JOV.”

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For his part, 1-Rider representative Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez cited 158 receipts for some P23.8 million in payments incorrectly dated as December 2023 instead of December 2022.

Attorney Gloria Camora, of COA’s Confidential Intelligence and Funds Audit Office, said the faulty receipts were intended to justify a wide range of expenses, including supplies, equipment and food aid , as well as “purchase of information” and “rewards, including medicines”.

She pointed out that due to their discrepancies with the corresponding receipts, the payments were included in the notice of rejection of the COA for the P73 million.

A real person?

At a news conference Monday, Deputy Majority Leader Jefferson Khonghun, vice chairman of the House counterpart to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, said members of the panel as well as the House Quad Committee had agreed to provide a cash reward “at our desire.” to (conclude) the committee hearing.

The Zambales MP said it was crucial to identify the alleged recipients of the confidential OVP funds.

“(That’s why) it’s very important that the signatories of the acknowledgments are present at the hearing and one of them is Mary Grace Piattos,” Khonghun said. “We really want to know if Mary Grace Piattos is real because the OVP insists she is (a) real person…At least we can put (the issue) aside because we don’t believe that Mary Grace Piattos is a real person and they say she is.

As for why the cash reward is given only to Piattos, the lawmaker said, “If there is no Mary Grace Piattos, it is certain that all the other (signatories are) fictitious.” »