Nearly two-thirds of the individuals who received payments from the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) ₱500-million confidential funds have no birth records in the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) system, sparking concerns over the legitimacy of the disbursements.
Manila 3rd District Representative Joel Chua, who chairs the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, has called on the PSA to verify 1,992 names listed in the OVP’s acknowledgment receipts (ARs).
Related story: House panel seeks PSA verification of 1,992 individuals who received confidential funds from OVP
The PSA’s findings revealed that 1,322 of these names could not be found in the civil registry. Chua stated, “This certification from the PSA leaves little doubt — if these names cannot be found in the civil registry, it strongly suggests they do not exist.
“The ARs may have been manufactured to justify the disbursement of confidential funds.” He added,
“These findings raise a critical question: if the recipients don’t exist, where did the money go? This is not just a clerical error; it points to a deliberate effort to misuse public funds.”
Further verification by the PSA uncovered that 1,456 individuals had no marriage records and 1,593 lacked death certificates.
This is not the first case of suspicious records. The PSA previously verified ARs from the Department of Education (DepEd), which Vice President Sara Duterte oversaw until July 2024.
The PSA found that 405 out of 677 names associated with DepEd’s confidential fund receipts were also missing from its records.
Lawmakers investigating both the OVP and DepEd confidential funds have flagged several irregularities in the ARs, including names with mismatched signatures, typographical errors, and some documents that were missing key details such as names, dates, or signatures.
One of the “questionable” names highlighted during the hearings was Mary Grace Piattos, which Antipolo 2nd District Representative Romeo Acop noted appeared to be a combination of restaurant and snack names.
The investigation continues as lawmakers seek to uncover the full extent of any potential misuse of public funds.
