AN administration lawmaker yesterday revealed a new set of fictitious names included in the list of the recipients of confidential funds of Vice President Sara Duterte, which now includes five “Dodongs,” a “Jay Kamote” and a “Miggy Mango.”
The names are part of evidence attached to the Articles of Impeachment against the Vice President. The evidence includes two other names, seemingly linked to “Mary Grace Piattos” — one “Pia Piatos-Lim” and one “Renan Piatos” — who have only one “T” in their middle and last names, respectively.
The name Piattos has been the subject of ridicule because the first name Mary Grace could have been taken from the name of a popular restaurant, while the surname Piattos is a known local potato chips snack brand.
Another dubious name, “Xiaome Ocho,” also appears on the list of the OVP’s confidential fund recipients, which was apparently named after a Xiaomi cellphone model from 2018.
“First, a snack and a cellphone brand. Now, there’s a fruit and sweet potato and worst, it looks like there’s a ‘Dodong Gang’! Not one, not three — five Dodongs are in the list,” La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V said in Filipino in a statement.
Like the other dubious names, Jay Kamote, Miggy Mango, and the five Dodongs have no birth, marriage, or death records in the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) while appearing in the OVP’s confidential fund reports.
A total of 1,992 were listed as fund recipients but certifications from the PSA show that 1,322 had no birth records, 1,456 had no marriage records, and 1,593 had no death records.
The PSA certifications were submitted to the House committee on good government and public accountability on December 8 and 11, 2024.
“What kind of payroll is this? We can’t even determine if those who received money from the confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) are real people or not,” Ortega said.
He said the findings further strengthen the impeachment case since among specific acts cited in the Articles of Impeachment was Duterte’s alleged malversation of a total of P612.5 million in confidential funds as vice president and as education secretary, a position she held until June last year.
Duterte is accused of questionable disbursements under the Office of the Vice President, worth P254.8 million, and linked to 1,322 fictitious beneficiaries who had no birth records, and another P43.2 million in alleged ghost transactions involving 405 fake names under the confidential funds of the Department of Education.
“This isn’t just negligence, this is a systematized plan to squander public funds. Fake names, fake liquidation and fake accountability,” Ortega said.
Duterte was officially impeached on February 5 after 215 lawmakers endorsed the verified impeachment complaint filed by the majority bloc, exceeding by 113 signatories the constitutional requirement of one-third of all members of the House of Representatives, which currently has 306 members.
The Articles of Impeachment accuses Duterte of culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption and other high crimes. It was transmitted to the Senate also on February 5. Trial may start in July.
Former Senate President Franklin Drilon said the Senate should go on with the impeachment trial amid reports Duterte may also be ordered arrested by the International Criminal Court (ICC), like her father.
He said it is the Senate’s constitutional duty to act as an impeachment court, whether there is a case in the Netherlands or none.
“Let us be guided by our Constitution. We encounter problems because the rule of law is very weak in our jurisdiction. Our laws are bent by some due to so many justifications. We are having problems with that. Let me simply put it – if we only obey our laws, we will not encounter too many problems,” he said in Filipino.
Duterte’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested on March 11 based on a warrant issued by the ICC for alleged crimes against humanity during his administration’s war against illegal drugs. Later that day, the vice president said she could be the next to be ordered arrested.
The younger Duterte has been linked to drug killings in Davao City when she was mayor from 2016 to 2022. – With Raymond Africa
