The defense of Vice President Sara Duterte has seemed unfazed about the House prosecution panel’s plan to present infamous Mary Grace Piattos in the upcoming trial. 

Lawyer Michael Poa, a member of the 16-man defense team, said their camp is fully prepared to scrutinize the testimony of whoever takes the witness stand, including the alleged non-existent Piattos, once the trial proper begins on 6 July. 

“As for us, that's the prerogative of the prosecution, because those are their own witnesses. So definitely if they're presented, we will be ready to cross-examine,” Poa told reporters on the sidelines of the fifth day of the pre-trial conference. 

His statement was made in response to reports that the prosecution team officially lined up Piattos as one of their witnesses against Duterte in relation to the usage of multi-million-peso confidential funds under the first article of impeachment. 

House prosecutors said the documentary evidence related to the secret funds alone was voluminous, with “thousands” of documents, which caused a delay in the marking process. 

The name of Piattos surfaced during the height of the House of Representatives' investigation into Duterte’s P612.5 million in confidential and intelligence funds in 2024. 

The funds were allocated to two offices held by Duterte—the Office of the Vice President (P500 million) and the Department of Education (P112.5 million) — in 2022 and 2023. 

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority revealed that Piattos has no civil registry records, such as birth, marriage, and death certificates. 

Despite this, she was listed as one of the recipients of the P125 million in secret funds allegedly spent by Duterte in just 11 days in December 2022. 

Of the sum, P73.3 million was disallowed by state auditors due to a lack of supporting evidence proving that the funds were spent on information gathering or surveillance activities for which the funds were allocated.

Gina Acosta, the OVP’s special disbursing officer, told the House panel in November 2024 that the surname “Piattos” exists in Davao City, where she and VP Duterte reside.

The House probe revealed that Piattos signed the acknowledgment receipt, confirming she received a portion of the intelligence funds, though the amount was not publicly disclosed. 

House lawmakers flagged the ARs as “highly suspicious," citing irregularities in the documents, including identical ink, signatures, and incorrect dates, with some lacking a signature and having missing names. 

The supposed inconsistencies fuel suspicion among legislators that the ARs were likely fabricated or rushedly prepared and submitted to the Commission on Audit to justify the spending.

The House panel that exhaustively investigated the use of confidential funds had earlier offered a P1 million bounty to anyone who could provide leads about Piattos, but to no avail.

Aside from Piattos, lawmakers also flagged the alleged spurious names of other recipients, namely, “Jay Kamote,” “Miggy Mango,” “Dodong Gang,” “Xiaome Ocho,” “Mico Harina,” “Ralph Josh Bacon,” and “Sala Casim,” among others.

Past verification of the PSA revealed that of 1,992 supposed recipients of confidential funds from 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.

In a separate interview on Monday, House prosecutor Tery Ridon expressed confidence that Piattos’ testimony would be the “smoking gun” on how Duterte spent her confidential funds.

Meanwhile, despite the lengthy pre-trial conference, Ridon and his peers in the prosecution team believe that the trial proper will start on 6 July as scheduled.