MANILA, Philippines – The search for Mary Grace Piattos, among the supposed recipients of Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds, yielded zero results in the database of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The agency sent a certification of its finding to Manila 3rd District Representative Joel Chua, whose House good government committee is investigating Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged misuse of public funds.
Based on the letter dated November 25 but released only on Tuesday, December 3, Piattos has no record of birth, marriage, or death with the the PSA.
“If additional information such as the name of parents of the subject, date, and place of the vital event can be provided, we can search further and be able to ascertain whether the civil registry document is available in the database,” read the certification signed by National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Dennis Mapa.
During the congressional inquiry, it was discovered that a certain Mary Grace Piattos signed an acknowledgment receipt from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) on December 30, 2022, indicating she had received part of the P125 million in secret funds of the agency that year.
That P125-million confidential fund was controversial because (1) the public belatedly learned about the transfer of the money to the OVP (Duterte’s predecessor Leni Robredo who prepared that year’s budget did not request for secret funds), (2) the whopping fund was exhausted within 11 days, and (3) the Commission on Audit later disallowed P73 million from the total due to the “non-submission of documents evidencing the success of information gathering/and or surveillance.”
The oddity of the name “Mary Grace Piattos” later raised alarm bells among lawmakers, as it was a combination of the names of a popular restaurant and a snack brand.
The good government committee even offered a bounty of P1 million for any information that would lead to the discovery of the Piattos person.
Other weird names that were reflected in the acknowledgement receipts of the OVP included Fernando Tempura, Reymunda Jane Nova, and Carlos Miguel Oishi.
“If we see something wrong with one, it’s not far-fetched that the others might be the same,” said House Assistant Majority Leader Jude Acidre. “We have a basis to question and examine whether the other receipts are also similar, just as spurious as the acknowledgment receipt signed by Mary Grace Piattos.”
“When you submit documents to COA that include someone named Mary Grace Piattos justifying certain expenses, but it turns out they don’t exist, there seems to be an element of fraud there,” added Bataan 1st District Representative Geraldine Roman. – Rappler.com
