House Deputy Speaker Rep. Paolo Ortega expressed that it was possible that the House Prosecution Panel would discover more “aliases” that received confidential funds when an active official from the Commission on Audit (COA) takes the witness stand on Monday, 10 August.

Ortega explained that their upcoming witness, state auditor Xylene Mae del Campo, was meant to discuss matters concerning the acknowledgement receipts that were submitted to COA from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd).

The solon noted that Del Campo could reveal identities aside from those that were previously disclosed in the hearings conducted at the House of Representatives.

“Well, we can’t deny that the name that has become famous is Mary Grace Piattos, but maybe we can also hear names like Chippy McDonald, or Miggy Mango. Let’s wait because the prosecutors have a tactic for that. I’m sure it will be discussed,” he said during a radio interview.

Last Wednesday, 5 August, Del Campo was called to the witness stand as she was the current official designated to the COA Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO) after former state auditor Roderick Wamil who was also previously called to testify.

Her testimony was cut short as the prosecution and the defense had varying views on stipulating on thousands of acknowledgement receipts that came from the offices that Duterte oversaw.

Prosecutors have since explained that Del Campo was meant to testify on the findings of the auditing agency, particularly in how the funds were liquidated.

To recall, Wamil had previously said that there were various irregularities in how the confidential funds were used, particularly when it came to the lack of supporting documents and the supposed use case of the amounts.

A particular issue that had caught the public’s attention since the alleged misuse of confidential funds were first formally discussed under the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability was the names that were indicated as recipients of the funds based on the acknowledgement receipts.

During a recent House Committee on Justice hearing on 14 April, an official from the Philippine Statistics Authority confirmed that it had no birth records of a majority of the alleged recipients of the funds–including Mary Grace Piattos.

Wamil had clarified, however, that based on Joint Circular 2015-01, which sets the guidelines on how confidential funds must be used and audited, there were no clear rulings on whether the use of aliases was allowed or prohibited.

Notably, COA has since ordered for the restitution of the P73.8 million in confidential funds from the OVP in 2022.

For Ortega, the issue was not only on how much was lost through the offices that the Vice President assumed, it was also important that coming testimony of Del Campo would identify the individuals that actually received the money.

“It would be good to really see where the money actually went and whether anyone received it,” he said.

The Senate is set to resume hearing on the impeachment against Duterte on Monday, 10 August.