House refers OVP, DepEd receipts to PSA, NBI, PNP

The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability on Wednesday approved a motion referring the “dubious” acknowledgement receipts (ARs) by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and law enforcement agencies.

The move was made by Ako Bicol Party-list Representative Jil Bongalon as the panel continues its investigation on the confidential funds of the departments that are or were under Vice President Sara Duterte.

“I would like to move that these dubious, spurious, and highly irregular acknowledgement receipts be referred to the Philippine Statistics Authority or the PSA to verify the names enumerated therein if these persons really exist,” said Bongalon.

“Secondly, I would like to move also that the acknowledgment receipts be referred to the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police for them to assist us in conducting a handwriting or signature examinations to verify whether the recipients of these confidential funds are real or not, with Ms. Mary Grace Piattos as the first priority,” he added.

The Commission on Audit (COA) first revealed last November 5 that the OVP and DepEd submitted acknowledgement receipts with wrong dates, signatures without names of signatories, and unreadable names of signatories to justify the disbursement of  their confidential funds in 2022 and in 2023.

The commission said there were 158 ARs, amounting to P23 million, which have wrong dates.

The House panel earlier put up a P1 million reward for any information on a “Mary Grace Piattos” whose signature appeared the most times in the ARs for confidential funds of offices under the Duterte. 

During Wednesday’s hearing, Lanao del Sur 1st District Representative Zia Alonto Adiong presented two ARs - one for the OVP and another for DepEd - which were both received by a certain “Kokoy Villamin” from Ozamis.

“Is it a coincidence that the same two offices, headed by the same person, submitting to you the same acknowledgement receipts can encounter two persons with the same name, bearing the same last name…possible po ba ‘yan (Is that possible)?” Adiong asked state auditor Gloria Camora.

Camora responded: “Medyo likely less possible (It’s likely less possible to happen).”

With the irregularities on the ARs, Adiong said that these open “floodgates of question.”

“It’s very obvious, Mr. Chair, na hindi lang si Mary Grace Piattos ang nakita po nating kwestyonable. Nakikita rin po natin na may mga acknowledge receipts na pare-pareho ang pangalan, na magkakaiba yung date, na magkakaiba yung kanilang mga pirma,” he said.

(It’s very obvious, Mr. Chair, that it’s not only Mary Grace Piattos who is questionable. We have seen in the acknowledgement receipts that there were the same names but with different dates and signatures.)

Duterte, on the other hand, said she has not seen the ARs for confidential funds supposedly signed by “Mary Grace Piattos.” —RF, GMA Integrated News