OVP docs with 'Piatos, Xiaome' names seen bolstering Sara impeachment case

The absence in government records of three additional supposed recipients of confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) will strengthen the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, two administration lawmakers said Friday.

The three additional names—Pia Piatos-Lim, Renan Piatos, and Xiaome Ocho—were found as recipients of confidential funds in the annexes of the impeachment complaint endorsed by the House against the Vice President, according to Deputy Majority Leader Francisco and La Union 1st District Representative Paolo Ortega V.

Ortega raised that "Xiaome Ocho" sounded like a cellphone model, while the "Piatos" names closely resembled "Mary Grace Piattos"—whose signature appeared in multiple acknowledgement receipts for confidential funds of offices under Duterte's leadership.

"It's the same premise on Mary Grace Piatos. Renan, Pia and Xiaomi. They are just names, not real persons. Ano bang mayroon sa kanila at parang qualified silang lahat makatanggap ng confidential funds (What do they have that makes them all qualified to receive confidential funds)?" Ortega said.

"They are all not in PSA records. It will prove out point and it will strengthen the [impeachment] case," Ortega added, referring to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

These PSA records include birth, marriage and death records. The agency had previously informed a House committee investigating Duterte's confidential funds that it has no record of "Mary Grace Piattos" in its database.

Lawmakers had raised suspicions that "Mary Grace Piattos" was a fictitious person, who's name allegedly sounded like a cross between a restaurant and a snack.

Ortega said their PSA records on hand show that out of 1,992 names linked to the OVP confidential funds, only 670 had a "most likely match" in the agency's records.

Meanwhile, 1,322 individuals had no birth records; 1,456 had no marriage records, with only 536 possible matches; while 1,593 had no death records, with just 399 possible matches.

"Anong klase itong confidential funds disbursement na hindi natin matukoy kung totoong tao ba ang mga tumanggap? Public funds ito, pero parang ginamit sa isang imaginary payroll," Ortega said.

(What kind of confidential funds disbursement is this that there are questions if real people received the money? These are public funds, but an imaginary payroll seems to have been used.)

These findings were detailed in a letter from National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Undersecretary Claire Dennis Mapa to Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua, chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.

More names expected

Meanwhile, House Assistant Majority Leader and Zambales 1st district Representative Jefferson Khonghun said such allegedly fictitious names indicate impropriety on the part of the Vice President's disbursement of public funds.

"We are really seeing here that there is abuse on the confidential fund use of the Vice President. These names prove that their liquidation is faulty, and they are just rushing for names to account for huge amount fund releases," Khonghun said.

"We have been expecting these kind of revelations and we expect more of these names to be unraveled during the impeachment trial of the Vice President," Khonghun added.

In addition, Ortega echoed Khonghun's sentiments, noting that the disbursement of the confidential fund involved over 1,000 acknowledgment receipts.

"There will be more fake names, and we are just verifying it before disclosure. But that is why over 215 lawmakers signed off on the impeachment complaint. There are a lot of things that the Vice President has to explain," Ortega said.

"That is why we really need the Senate to conduct the impeachment trial because we want to know the truth and who are the liars," Khonghun added.

GMA News Online has requested comment from the Office of the Vice President regarding the statements of Ortega and Khonghun.

Nothing to hide?

As this developed, Khonghun also called out the Vice President's petition with the Supreme Court seeking to nullify the impeachment case against her for being illegal and supposedly on a whim by the House of Representatives.

"They filed a petition before the Supreme Court to stop the impeachment. If they are really confident that you did nothing wrong, you need not hide or feat anything. Why not the face the impeachment trial in the Senate," Khonghun said.

The Vice President's camp earlier said she is willing to defend herself in an impeachment court as long as the impeachment process followed due process.

She has also maintained that she never misused public funds.

Members of the House prosecution team have said that they followed due process in filing the impeachment complaint against the Vice President. — VDV, GMA Integrated News