PSA: No birth records of names in DepEd receipts
MORE than 400 out of the 677 names listed as beneficiaries of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) confidential funds under Vice President Sara Duterte have no birth records, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Manila Rep. Joel Chua, chair of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, told the panel’s hearing yesterday that the PSA has certified that it has no birth records of the 405 out of 677 names submitted for verification, a clear indication that the names were fabricated.
“Tayo po ay sumulat upang isumite ang 677 pang pangalan na nakalagay sa acknowledgment receipts (ARs) ng DepEd kung saan tayo po ay binigyan ng tugon ng (PSA), dated December 8, 2024 (We wrote to submit 677 names listed in the acknowledgment receipts of the DepEd and the PSA gave us a response),” Chua said.
Chua added: “At dito, kanila pong sinasabi na out of 677 individuals, 405 ay walang birth certificate o walang record of birth o pwede nating sabihin na non-existent (And here in their reply, they’re saying that out 677 individuals, 405 have no birth certificates or birth records which means we can say they’re non-existent).”
The good government panel has been looking into the disbursement of P612.5 million in confidential funds – P500 million from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and P112.5 million from DepEd – disbursed between late 2022 and the third quarter of 2023.
Duterte resigned as concurrent education secretary last June when her political alliance with President Marcos Jr. ended.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has disallowed P73.28 million of the P125 million confidential funds disbursed by the OVP in 2022 and ordered the Vice President to return the funds, which was spent in just 11 days, to the public coffers.
The COA has likewise issued Audit Observation Memorandums (AOMs) against the P375 million in confidential funds disbursed by the OVP in 2023 after finding irregularities in the use of the funds.
During the committee hearings, it was revealed that the OVP spent P16 million to rent 34 safe houses for just 11 days in late 2022, with one safe house costing nearly P91,000 per day.
The OVP was likewise found to have allocated P15 million for youth leadership summits supposedly conducted with the Philippine Army.
Military officials, however, have denied receiving such funds, saying the youth leadership summits were funded by the military and local government units, raising suspicions of misrepresentation and fabrication of activities to justify fund utilization.
The committee yesterday wrapped up its hearing on the use of confidential funds by the DepEd and the OVP, but it will resume next year to continue looking into other questionable disbursements, such as the DepEd’s procurement of laptops.
The fund misuse issue has been used by a group led by Akbayan party-list and another one led by the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) to file two separate impeachment complaints against the Vice President.
‘FAKE’ NAMES
Among the fabricated identities that the Chua panel earlier found to have signed the ARs are “Mary Jane Piattos” and “Kokoy Villamin,” whose name appeared in both the DepEd and OVP receipts for confidential funds although with different signatures.
The PSA has also earlier certified that both Piattos and Villamin have no birth, marriage or death records, prompting lawmakers to conclude that their identities were faked to justify the use of confidential funds.
The two spurious signatories were in the thousands of ARs submitted by the OVP to the Commission on Audit (COA) as liquidation documents to justify the hundreds of millions of disbursements.
In the latest PSA report presented by Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, among the questionable DepEd recipients are three “Alice Cresencio,” who have different signatures and addresses, one “Milky Secuya,” one “Sally” and one “Shiela.”
“Tayo po ay na-scam sa pamamagitan ng libo-libong (ARs) na basta-bastang dinoktor at gawa-gawa lang (We were scammed using thousands of ARs that were doctored and fabricated),” Adiong said.
The PSA’s report to the committee, which was signed by National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Claire Dennis Mapa, also revealed that 445 individuals lacked marriage certificates, while 508 had no death certificates.
Lawmakers said this is an indication that other individuals subject to verification have one or more matching records in the civil registry.
Adiong noted that Milky Secuya signed two ARs on the same day with the same pen and ink but with obviously different signatures.
Similarly, Alice Crescencio appeared on three separate receipts allegedly issued in Pasay City, Iligan City, and Lanao del Sur – locations that are geographically impossible to visit simultaneously.
“Itong pangalan po na ito ay hindi pangkaraniwan (This name is not ordinary) and the chances of three different ‘Alice Crescencios,’ all receiving confidential funds for different purposes, from the DepEd, is extremely slim,” Adiong said, as he dismissed any claim of coincidence.
He also questioned the names “Sally” and “Shiela,” whose receipts featured identical signatures even if they supposedly belong to two individuals from cities that are more than 400 kilometers apart.
“It makes you think: what are the chances that two different people, from Digos City and Surigao City, have the exact same signature?” he asked.
He also noticed the use of a distinctive shade of blue ink across several receipts, which he said proves that the documents were fabricated by a single person, and some receipts that showed altered handwriting styles but the same signatures, which Adiong said suggested forgery.
Adiong said the fraudulent ARs showing mere “code names” violated provisions under the COA’s Joint Circular 2015-001, which governs the use and documentation of confidential funds and requires ARs to be stored in a secure vault and submitted in a sealed envelope.
The PSA’s revelation about Piattos was what prompted the committee to request for the verification of the identities of the 677 other names listed in the ARs after lawmakers raised suspicion that there could be a scheme to fabricate identities.
‘MASTERMIND OPS’
Adiong accused the OVP and the DepEd of manufacturing almost 5,000 ARs to cover up what he called a “systematic misuse of public funds.”
He also said that should be held accountable for the irregularities, which he called a “mastermind operation.”
“There is only one person in the middle of the issues surrounding the anomalous utilization of confidential funds — the mastermind, Vice President Sara Duterte,” he said.
He cited the testimonies of two disbursing officers that the confidential funds were handed over to two members of Duterte’s security team which was followed by the fabrication of ARs.
Former DepEd Special Disbursing Officer (SDO) Edward Fajarda earlier told the Chua panel that Col. Dennis Nolasco, a security officer at the DepEd, was the one who disbursed the agency’s P112.5 million confidential funds in 2023, while OVP SDO Gina Acosta said that she disbursed P125 million of the agency’s 2023 secret funds to Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, head of the Vice President Security and Protection Group (VPSPG).
Adiong also underscored that the disbursement of the P125 million in confidential funds allocated to the OVP in 2022 was riddled with irregularities, including dates outside the funding period, forged signatures and fake names.
‘ABUSED, MALVERSED, TAKEN’
In his presentation, Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez said: “Throughout the course of seven hearings, we have brought detail to some long-held suspicions: the confidential funds of the OVP and DepEd had been abused, or malversed, or perhaps, even taken.”
“By abused, I mean that the relevant officers of the OVP and the DepEd took advantage of gaps in, and in fact, violated Joint Circular 2015-001. Mahirap po na problema ito – pera po ng taong bayan ang pinag-uusapan dito (this problem is difficult, we’re talking about people’s money here) and unless we are aware of these gaps and violations, the legal regime cannot and will not change for the better,” he added.
Gutierrez pointed out that Fajarda admitted to encashing P37.5 million per quarter while not knowing how the funds were spent after handing it over to security officers, adding that he is “not just a simple bagman.”
“It begs the question, sino po ba ang totoong special disbursing officer? Kung ang nag-iisang taong pinag-didisburse-an ng SDO ay si Col. Nolasco (who is the true SDO? If the one who receives the disbursements is Col. Nolasco),” he said. “What ever happened to Mr. Fajarda being an accountable officer under the Joint Circular kung wala siyang slightest idea kung saan napupunta o kanino ibinibigay ang confidential funds (if he doesn’t have the slightest idea where or to whom the confidential funds are given). Is his role in this entire process simply ministerial?”
Gutierrez said the same pattern emerged in the OVP, where Acosta was tasked with encashing P125 million per quarter across three quarters.
The lawyer-lawmaker questioned the preparation of liquidation reports with ARs, which he noted were backdated or hastily prepared to justify the disbursements to the COA.
“An examination of the acknowledgment receipts submitted by the DepEd for the 1st Quarter of 2023 revealed that Mr. Fajarda made disbursements for 38 consecutive days … and for 35 out of those 38 days, payouts were made to at least 10 to 26 people per day and for various purposes,” he said, calling this “unrealistic.”
Gutierrez said the DepEd also misused certifications from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to justify the P21.9 million purportedly spent on informants.
“The DepEd took advantage of the AFP, rode in the coattails of the AFP, and misled the AFP into issuing certifications for a project that is not the DepEd’s to begin with,” he said.
