THE House of Representatives will try to verify if individuals who were listed as recipients – and have been confirmed to be existing — of Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds in both the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) really received the funds.
La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V said the House will now look into the “non-spurious” recipients whose identities were verified by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) which has discovered that thousands in the list of recipients are fictitious and non-existent.
He said the PSA has already verified and confirmed the identities of 670 names listed in the OVP’s acknowledgment receipts and the 272 from the DepEd, which Duterte used to head as secretary.
All the names were provided by the OVP and the DepEd to the Commission on Audit to justify its use of confidential funds and are now part of the pieces of evidence against the vice president who is facing an impeachment trial in the Senate.
“So we will do our own, perhaps a mini investigation but it’s all there in the committee level already so we can make a request for verification,” Ortega said in mixed Filipino and English, referring to the investigation of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.
“It will also be good to know if they received money or not. So we will look into that as part of our continuing work here at the House of Representatives,” he added.
The panel chaired by Manila Rep. Joel Chua earlier revealed that out of the 1,992 supposed recipients of the confidential funds of the OVP, 1,322 have no birth records while 1,456 are without marriage records. A total of 1,593 have no death records.
The Vice President is accused of questionable disbursements under the OVP, worth P254.8 million, and linked to the 1,322 fictitious beneficiaries and another P43.2 million in alleged ghost transactions involving 405 fake names under the confidential funds of the DepEd.
In total, she is accused of alleged illegal use of P612.5 million in confidential funds as vice president and as former education secretary.
Chua has also revealed that 405 out of the 677 names listed as beneficiaries of DepEd’s confidential funds under Duterte have no birth records, a clear indication that the names were allegedly fabricated.
‘TELESERYE’
Ortega said the House is reviewing about 4,000 acknowledgment receipts.
“Parang teleserye hind iba? Pakaunti-kaunti, may lumalabas (It’s like a TV drama, right? Little by little, there are revelations). So again, we have to verify,” Ortega said.
The latest batch of dubious names discovered in the list of recipients of confidential funds of the OVP and DepEd included three “Fionas,” a “Magellan,” one “Honeylet” and a person surnamed “Ewan” which means “I don’t know” in Filipino.
Also in the latest list are a “Feonna Biong,” a “Feonna Villegas,” and one “Fiona Ranitez.” Fiona is a main character in the “Shrek” movie franchise. She is a princess who becomes an ogre at night.
There is also an “Ellen Magellan,” whose surname seems to have been taken from historical figure Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan; an “Erwin Q. Ewan,” a “Gary Tanada” and a “Joel Linangan,” which, Ortega said, sound like the names of known figures in the entertainment industry.
Ortega said the Vice President or her team has shown a certain level of mastery in handling confidential funds, having handled confidential funds during her time as mayor of Davao City.
“Well, I think they’re already used to it. They know now how to run this system. More specifically, confidential funds. Intentional or not, they know what to do… They’ve probably achieved mastery already,” he said.
BACK FROM THE HAGUE
The OVP said Duterte is back in the country after spending almost a month in The Hague in the Netherlands helping form the defense team of her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte who is being tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.
She arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on Sunday at 9:56 p.m. via Emirates Airlines flight no. EK 334.
“The Vice President is expected to address any pertinent matters in the coming days,” the OVP said.
The vice president flew to the Netherlands days after her father was arrested on March 11 upon landing at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) from a gathering with overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong.
The former president’s lead counsel Nicholas Kaufman has said the defense team plans to seek the interim release of the former president before the confirmation of charges hearing that is set on September 23 this year.
Ortega said that while the House understands the vice president’s reasons for making the personal trip to The Hague, she should now be prepared for her impending impeachment trial.
Ortega lamented that the younger Duterte has not given any explanation to the issues raised against her, especially on the alleged misuse of P612.5 million in confidential and intelligence funds.
