Vice President Sara Duterte continues to astound with her seemingly cavalier attitude towards the hearings being conducted by members of the House of Representatives into the alleged misuse of funds, including irregularities in receipts related to confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) issued by the Office of the Vice President.
She has repeatedly snubbed calls by befuddled lawmakers to shed light, explain and correct misimpressions of what looked like fabricated acknowledgment receipts (ARS) related to the use of CIFs by her (OVP) office, with incorrect dates, identical ink, and worst of all, what seemed like made-up names given to — possibly — non-existent ARS recipients.
For instance, ARS bearing names like Carlos Miguel Oishi (named after Oishi snack brand owner Carlos Chan?), Reymunda Jane Nova (after Universal Robina Corporation’s Nova Multigrain Snack Classic Crunch?), Fernando Tempura (after the popular lightly battered and deep fried Japanese dish?), Mary Grace Piattos (after home-grown café/restaurant Mary Grace known for its ensaymadas and cheese rolls and URC’s Jack’n’Jill Piattos potato crisps?).
All this may be comical if not for the fact that it’s outright condemnable if indeed all these names are found out to be imagined by some perverse mind/s working overtime in the inner recesses of the Vice President’s office.
To find out if, indeed, persons bearing those names on the ARS of the CIFs issued by the OVP are real, members of the House committee on good government and public accountability have chipped in P1 million to be given to anyone who could at least bring to the House hearing one recipient — Mary Grace Piattos — of the hundreds of millions of the Vice President’s CIF which was all spent in just 11 days.
The ARS with Piattos’ name on it was one of some 787 others submitted to the CoA bearing names in print with no signatures or vice versa and over 300 receipts bearing unreadable or dubious names.
Last Monday, 18 November, Assistant Majority Leader Jefferson Khonghun, who is vice chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s counterpart in the House, said panel members along with those in the House quad committee agreed to put up P1 million for anyone who can produce Piattos.
“It’s important that the ARS signatories, including Piattos (if indeed she exists), attend the hearing (on 20 November); we want to find out if Mary Grace Piattos is real because the OVP is insisting that she is. We don’t believe that Mary Grace Piattos is a real person, and they’re saying that she is. If indeed she shows up, then we can put the issue to rest.”
Khonghun said the P1 million cash reward is only for Piattos because “if there is no Mary Grace Piattos, then it’s certain that all the rest (of the ARS signatories) are fictitious.”
Well, Wednesday, 20 November, came and went, and no person by that name appeared before the House committee on good government and public accountability chaired by Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua which continued the probe on questionable ARS submitted to CoA to justify the P612 million CIFs used up in record time by the OVP and the Department of Education then under the Vice President.
Instead, another odd name was unearthed by the lawmaker: one “Kokoy Villamin.” Name for whom, pray tell, retired PBA pro basketball player Elpidio “Yoyoy” Villamin?
The Vice President, the only person who can really put an end to this probing into allegations of her office’s misuse of public funds was, again, a no-show, in last Wednesday’s hearing.
In an earlier statement, she said, in justifying her snubbing the House probe that the latter has not been “in aid of legislation.” Not directly, yes, that may be so. But in terms of shining a light on how things are conducted in the innermost recesses of the second highest office in the land and the baring of the true nature of a public servant, enough has been seen.