House prosecutor dismisses claim VP Sara's receipts were tampered

A House prosecutor expressed confidence that the liquidation reports, containing alleged dubious recipients of confidential funds, submitted by Vice President Sara Duterte’s offices to state auditors are legitimate, dismissing speculations that the documents may have been tampered with.

Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro explained in an interview on Monday that acknowledgment receipts (ARs) were not produced by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability but rather by the Commission on Audit (CoA), which had flagged the utilization of Duterte’s P125 million confidential funds in 2022.

She clarified that they only learned about the so-called bogus names when the panel launched the probe into the alleged irregularities in the use of her secret funds, backed by CoA findings, with the documents only being submitted to the panel following a subpoena.

“These dubious names were discovered only during the investigation. Even us, we did not anticipate we will be discovering all these names,” said Luistro, a member of the prosecution team for Duterte’s upcoming impeachment trial.

“It all started with the notice of disallowance that we wanted to clarify and apparently, we did not get a satisfactory explanation both from the OVP and the DepEd (Department of Education). Reason why we pushed through with the investigation,” she added.

Duterte’s confidential funds—allocated to both the OVP and DepEd, which she headed for nearly two years—have drawn intense scrutiny after CoA findings revealed that a large portion of the funds were not used for their intended purpose, with some expenditures disallowed by auditors.

For instance, P73.287 million of the P125 million in confidential funds allocated to the OVP in 2022 were disallowed by the auditing body due to the lack of “documents evidencing the success of information gathering and/or surveillance activities” for which the funds were allegedly used.

The P125 million, which was part of the P500 million in secret funds that Duterte’s office received in 2022 and 2023, was spent in merely 11 days in December 2022.

A 2023 audit report also showed that the DepEd has pending notices of suspension, disallowance, and charge amounting to P12.3 billion, covering Duterte’s tenure as the agency’s secretary.

A notice of disallowance is issued for "irregular/unnecessary/excessive and extravagant" transactions, while a notice of suspension is for "transactions of doubtful legality/propriety/regularity."

Citing the exhaustive congressional hearings last year, Luistro said she is “morally certain” that the liquidation reports disclosing the alleged fictitious names as recipients of Duterte’s offices’ secret funds are “genuine.”

At present, there are approximately 15 dubious individuals listed as beneficiaries of Duterte’s confidential funds, according to Luistro.

This includes “Mary Grace Piattos,” “Jay Kamote,” “Miggy Mango,” “Xiaome Ocho,” “Beverly Claire Pampano,” “Mico Harina,” “Patty Ting,” “Ralph Josh Bacon,” and “Sala Casim,” among others.

Duterte earlier questioned the veracity of these names, saying, “We don’t know if that’s really what the Office of the Vice President submitted (to the Commission on Audit).”

Supporters of the VP suggested that these names might be merely aliases used by intelligence assets of her office, citing the confidential nature of the funds.

Luistro, however, argued that using fake identities to hide the personalities of the real recipients is not authorized under Joint Circular No. 2015-01, governing the use of confidential and intelligence funds.

“In intelligence funds, I understand that the military has a practice of not using real names. I am not aware of any rules or law that allows the same in confidential funds,” she said.

She continued, “We are maintaining the position that the joint circular is intended to have a clear accounting, a true accounting of the disbursement of public funds, and that includes confidential funds.”

Luistro explained that intelligence funds are distinct from confidential funds. The former is given to law enforcement or uniformed personnel for information gathering, while confidential funds are intended for civilian agencies with national security mandates.

“We submit that these utilizations of confidential funds should still be well-accounted for,” she asserted.

The House probe had revealed, among others, that the disbursement of Duterte’s multi-million confidential funds was allegedly supported by fictitious ARs.

Verification from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) revealed that of 1,992 supposed recipients of confidential funds for the 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.

These findings resulted in the impeachment of the VP, accusing her of graft, corruption, bribery, and betrayal of public trust, among others.

Despite the serious allegations, Duterte repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and contended that the accusations were part of a political attack against her to derail her presidential ambition for the 2028 elections.