Diokno denies being Sara Duterte confidential fund informant
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Akbayan Partylist Rep. Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno on Tuesday denied claims that he was among the supposed informants who received confidential funds from Vice President Sara Duterte after a similarly named individual appeared in an acknowledgment receipt presented during her impeachment trial.
Diokno took to social media to dispel speculation linking him to “Jose Diokno Jr.,” whose name appeared among the alleged recipients of confidential funds.
“They have tried for a long time to use this issue and ruin my name. Let me be clear: My name is Jose Manuel Diokno, not Jose Diokno Jr.,” Diokno said in a Facebook post.
“I never once received confidential funds. And I have never been an informant for the Vice President.”
The lawmaker's statement came amid renewed scrutiny of acknowledgment receipts presented during Duterte's ongoing impeachment trial at the Senate.
Aside from “Jose Diokno Jr.,” surnames matching those of prominent political figures, including “Revilla,” “Hontiveros,” “Lapid” and “Escudero,” also appeared among the supposed recipients.
The individuals allegedly received amounts ranging from P50,000 to P500,000 from 2022 to 2023.
Questions over the identities listed in confidential fund documents had surfaced even before the impeachment trial.
The Philippine Statistics Authority previously reported that hundreds of names submitted for verification by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, including the widely scrutinized “Mary Grace Piattos,” could not be matched with birth records.
Of the 677 names submitted for verification, 405 reportedly had no corresponding birth certificates or were classified as “non-existent.”
Diokno argued that attempts to link him to the receipts would instead raise further questions over Duterte's use of confidential funds.
“If you are saying that I received confidential funds, then you just admitted that the funds were improperly used by VP Sara,” he said.
On Tuesday, the prosecution completed its direct examination of state auditor Xylene Mae del Campo, its fourth witness for Article I of the impeachment case.
