'Pampano' and 'Bacon': What's for dinner, or confi fund recipients?

A new set of alleged bogus names dubbed “Team Grocery” had been found in the acknowledgment receipts (ARs) that Vice President Sara Duterte’s office submitted to the Commission on Audit (CoA) as beneficiaries of her P500 million in confidential funds, a House leader claimed Sunday.

The names include “Beverly Claire Pampano,” “Mico Harina,” “Patty Ting,” “Ralph Josh Bacon,” and “Sala Casim.”

“These new names we saw are like a grocery list,” House Deputy Majority Leader Paolo Ortega V said in Filipino.

According to the solon, these names, who purportedly obtained a portion of the secret fund, have no birth, marriage, or death records from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), similar to previously flagged alleged recipients, including “Mary Grace Piattos,” “Jay Kamote,” “Miggy Mango,” and “Xiaome Ocho,” among others.

Duterte has denied corruption allegations involving the use of her confidential funds. She likewise cast doubt on the veracity of the names that Ortega had claimed as beneficiaries of her secret funds.

Ortega, however, contended that these names are submitted by her office and the Department of Education — which Duterte headed for nearly two years — to the state auditors.

Duterte was accused of misappropriating P612.5 million in confidential funds allocated to the OVP (P500 million) and the DepEd (P112.5 million) in 2022 and 2023. The alleged irregularities in the use of such funds were among the grounds cited by the House of Representatives to impeach her on 5 February.

Lawmakers have since questioned the authenticity of the ARs, citing inconsistencies in the documents such as incorrect dates, with some containing only signatures with no names, fueling their suspicions that the receipts were fabricated or hastily prepared to justify the use of the secret funds.

“This isn’t the first time we have seen a ridiculous or strange name. What is more sad is that it continues to pile up. Is this a typo? It seems like there is an effort to actually invent a list to cover up where the funds were taken,” Ortega lamented.

Last week, Ortega also bared alleged bogus names — “Amoy Liu,” “Fernan Amuy,” and “Joug De Asim” — which he called “Team Amoy Asim.” They were allegedly listed as beneficiaries of DepEd’s confidential funds when Duterte was still the secretary.

A previous verification from the PSA revealed that of 1,992 supposed recipients of confidential funds of OVP, 1,322 had no birth records, 1,456 had no marriage records, and 1,593 had no death records.

Subsequent results from the PSA also disclosed that out of 677 names listed as beneficiaries of DepEd’s confidential funds, 405 had no birth records, 445 lacked marriage certificates, and 508 had no death certificates.

Critics of Duterte, including Ortega, believe that the discovery of the so-called dubious names makes solid evidence for her impending trial in the Senate, increasing the chances of her getting convicted and being permanently disqualified from holding public office.

The Senate is expected to try her after the 20th Congress takes over in late July or after the 12 senators are sworn in.

A vote of two-thirds or at least 16 of the 24 sitting senators is needed to convict Duterte. If convicted, she will be perpetually disqualified from holding any public office, including her alleged ambition to succeed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the 2028 national elections.