An administration lawmaker on Sunday sought coordination with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to verify the identity of a certain “Marian Rivera” and “Chel Diokno” who were allegedly among the informants who received a chunk of Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds.
House Assistant Majority Leader Zia Adiong highlighted the need for these names — which are identical to those of a popular actress and a renowned human rights lawyer and representative-elect — to be verified ahead of the impeachment trial scheduled in late July.
"In fact, the agencies that are tasked and also [have] the capacity to really assess and verify whether a certain Chel Diokno, apart from the Chel Diokno that we'd be popularly know, really does exist,” he said in an interview. “So, I guess the agencies that can actually help us, the public, to really know whether there really is a person with the same name are PSA and NBI. From the very start, we requested the assistance of these agencies.”
The names “Marian Rivera” and “Chel Diokno” were reportedly listed as among the recipients of the secret funds allocated to the Department of Education, which Duterte headed for nearly two years. These names were purportedly discovered in the acknowledgment receipts submitted by the DepEd to the Commission on Audit (CoA).
“Marian Rivera” allegedly received P100,000 in secret funds, based on veteran broadcaster Arnold Clavio’s recent post on Instagram.
While Adiong acknowledged “Marian Rivera” is a very familiar name, “Chel Diokno” is quite uncommon.
Incoming House lawmaker Chel Diokno of Akbayan Partylist cried foul after discovering that one of the recipients of the funds was named after him.
“Pati ba naman pangalan namin ni Ma’am Marian dinamay nila! Grabe ang kawalang-hiyaan!” he said in a Facebook post on Friday.
The discovery of these recent names only adds to the so-called fictitious recipients of Duterte’s multi-million confidential funds. The previous names that were flagged include “Mary Grace Piattos,” “Jay Kamote,” “Miggy Mango,” “Mico Harina,” “Ralph Josh Bacon,” and “Erwin Q. Ewan,” which lawmakers suggested mimic those of celebrities and grocery items.
These names were reportedly found to have no birth, marriage, or death records in the PSA’s database, fueling suspicions they were only fabricated to justify the use of the confidential funds.
The House of Representatives impeached Duterte on 5 February, accusing her of graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution.
The seven articles of impeachment were primarily anchored on the supposed misappropriation of P612.5 million in confidential funds allocated to her office and the DepEd during her tenure as its secretary.
VP Duterte has long denied corruption allegations involving her confidential funds and cast doubt on the authenticity of the names mentioned as her informants, suggesting that the acknowledgment receipts might have already been tampered with.
The Senate is expected to try her after the 20th Congress convenes on 28 July, and 12 new senators are sworn in.
A two-thirds vote — or at least 16 of the 24 senators — is required to convict and permanently bar Duterte from holding public office, derailing her bid for the presidency.