Sara Duterte: I haven't seen docs signed by 'Mary Grace Piattos'

Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday refused to comment regarding the P1-million reward for any information on "Mary Grace Piattos," saying she has not seen the acknowledgement receipts for confidential funds supposedly signed by the latter.

In an interview with reporters in Butuan City, Duterte said documents concerning her offices' confidential expenses are submitted directly to the Commission on Audit (COA) by the special disbursing officer (SDO) and do not go through her.

"I have no comment on that, 'no, because I have not seen the acknowledgement receipt na kanilang sinasabi. Because basically, lahat ng mga documents, hindi siya dumadaan sa akin. Dumidiretso siya sa SDO and sina-submit siya sa…office ng COA na gumagawa ng audit ng confidential funds," the Vice President said.

(I have no comment on that because I have not seen the acknowledgment receipt that they are talking about. Basically, all the documents don't go through me. They go straight to the SDO and are submitted to the COA office that conducts an audit of the confidential funds.)

"So hindi ako maka-comment lalong-lalo na hindi namin alam paano pinroseso ang pagbigay ng copies ng ARs (acknowledgement receipts) or ng submissions namin sa COA to the House of Representatives, and sino ang nagha-handle noong mga documents," she added.

(So I can't comment, especially that I don't know how the submission of copies of the acknowledgment receipts to the COA and to the House of Representatives was processed and who the people who handled those documents were.)

Duterte was reacting to the P1-million reward the House good government and public accountability panel has put up for any information on "Mary Grace Piattos," whose signature appeared the most in acknowledgement receipts for confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte's stint as secretary.

Speaking before the House committee on good government and public accountability, the COA earlier said the OVP and DepEd submitted documents with wrong dates, signatures without names of signatories, and unreadable names of signatories to justify the disbursement of its confidential funds in 2022 and 2023.

COA auditor Gloria Camora said many acknowledgment receipts were dated December 2023 but they do not have the data on the exact number. She said there were also undated ARs.

Further, COA confirmed that there were 787 acknowledgement receipts with unnamed signatories and 302 ARs with unreadable names of signatories submitted by the OVP and DepEd to justify its confidential fund use in 2023. — VDV, GMA Integrated News