A two-month-old who died in 1965 matched the records provided by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) as one of the alleged recipients of P500 million in confidential funds, a top official from the Philippine Statistics Authority told the Senate impeachment court Monday. 

The infant was named “Marlin Sunga” and died on 2 November 1965. She was one of the 37 deceased persons—and was the youngest—who appeared in some of the acknowledgment receipts (ARs) as purported payees of the confidential funds. 

Of the 37, five were listed in the ARs of the Department of Education (DepEd), which Vice President Sara Duterte concurrently headed from June 2022 to June 2024.

Assistant National Statistician Marizza Grande answered private prosecutor Mae Divinagracia that the name Marlin Sunga corresponded to a death certificate record of an infant who was about 61 years dead at the time she allegedly received a portion of the confidential funds as stated on the AR.

Some of the supposed OVP recipients whose names matched those on death certificates also include Fortunato Salig (P200,000), Emilio Sagan (P70,000), and Rodolfo Traya (P120,000). They allegedly received the confidential funds in 2023, but PSA verification showed that they died in June 2011, July 2015, and May 2021, respectively.

Overall, 1,685 names yielded no records of live birth, marriage, or death in the PSA database.

The 1,685 is equivalent to 63 percent of the total 2,669 names submitted by the House committee on good government and public accountability in November 2024 to the PSA for verification. 

Senator-judge Joel Villanueva asked Grande whether she found the 63 percent unregistered records found in the OVP and DepEd records as “unusual,” to which the witness answered in the affirmative, considering that the rate of non-matching records typically ranges between 7 and 8 percent, with some cases reaching up to 30 to 40 percent.

Grande also deemed such a high percentage of unregistered individuals “rare.”

PSA records also showed that a certain Miko Alquizar was only one year old when he supposedly received confidential funds as alleged in the ARs. His birth certificate stated that he was born on 11 June 2022. 

Another alleged recipient was named Beatrice Cuenca, who was born on 7 January 2022 and supposedly signed an AR on 14 March 2023.

“In your opinion, Ms. Grande, what kind of information could one-year-old Beatrice Cuenca possibly provide to the OVP or DepEd?” Divinagracia asked. 

“[My testimony is] based only on [PSA] record, Your Honor, so I cannot speculate,” Grande responded. 

Presiding officer Chiz Escudero chimed in, “Would you know if it’s the same Beatrice Cuenca that signed that document? Would you be in a position to answer?” to which Grande replied, “No, sir.” 

Grande was the sixth to take the witness stand for Article I, which centers on Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged misuse of her confidential funds in the OVP and the DepEd, which received P112.5 million.

Prosecutors have accused Duterte of embezzling the funds, alleging that the ARs provided by her two offices were fabricated, as they mostly bore “fictitious names” to justify the spending. 

In total, there were 20 minors in the OVP list of payees and five minors in the DepEd.

Grande supervised the review process of the civil registry records of the individuals listed as payees of the OVP and DepEd. 

Out of 1,992 payees of OVP’s confidential funds, 1,287 had negative records of birth, marriage, and death, according to Grande. Those with no live birth, marriage, and death records totaled 1,322, 1,456, and 1,593, respectively.

As for the DepEd, the findings showed that 398 of the 677 DepEd payees had no similar records. 

Grande, who has been with the PSA for more than 25 years, said registration of birth, marriage, and death is mandatory by law, serving primarily as proof of identity. 

Another notable finding by the PSA on the names of non-existent individuals includes the infamous Mary Grace Piattos, who supposedly received P70,000 in confidential funds.

“Based on the information provided and our database, there is no record of birth, no record of marriage, and no record of marriage for a certain Mary Grace Piattos,” Grande told the impeachment court.

Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo urged the impeachment court to call Colonel Raymund Lachica as a witness to explain the authenticity of the ARs.

Lachica was the former ground commander of a military security group dedicated to VP Duterte. He was accused of being the sole implementer or responsible for overseeing the ground operations funded by the P500 million in confidential funds allocated to the OVP from late 2022 to 2023. 

The prosecution initially listed him as their witness but later dropped him from the lineup.

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