Surnames of 鈥榮enators鈥� also聽crop up in probe of Sara Duterte funds
La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega —Photo from the Facebook page of the House of Representatives
MANILA, Philippines — First there was “Mary Grace Piattos,” then “Marian Rivera” and “Chel Diokno.”
Now come more suspicious-sounding names listed as supposed beneficiaries of Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds.
One set stood out and hinted at a pattern as they shared the surnames of some incumbent senators, according to a House member.
La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V on Thursday said ongoing efforts to scrutinize the vouchers of alleged beneficiaries had come across “Beth Revilla,” “Janice Marie Revilla,” “Diane Maple Lapid,” “John A. Lapid Jr.,” “Clarisse Hontiveros,” “Kristine Applegate Estrada,” and “Denise Tanya Escudero.”
READ: Sara Duterte’s confidential fund spending raises new, more doubts
Ortega is a member of the House committee on good government and accountability that investigated the alleged misuse of confidential funds granted to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd), the latter when it was still also headed by Duterte as concurrent secretary.
“Even the Senate was not exempt from this ‘budol (swindling) gang,’” Ortega said. “My god, why would you even involve the surnames of esteemed senators? That’s how brazen the list of supposed beneficiaries of the confidential funds are.”
“These irregularities are too glaring to ignore — these names from the supposed Budol Gang call for a deeper look,” he added.
The committee was looking into the more than 1,000 named recipients of the OVP and DepEd funds from 2022 to 2024.
Part of impeachment raps
Its investigation became a critical component of the impeachment complaint filed against Duterte and endorsed in February by more than 200 House members for trial in the Senate.
Denying any irregularity, Duterte earlier explained, her staff likely submitted only the aliases of ‘’informants’’ who were paid using confidential funds to protect their identity.
But a former Commission on Audit commissioner, Heidi Mendoza, said the OVP and DepED should have kept a separate list of the recipients’ real identities as part of internal controls to prevent misuse.
The discovery of the suspicious-sounding names of beneficiaries is likely to crop up in Duterte’s upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate.
‘Team Grocery’
Aside from the surnames similar to that of senators, Ortega said, there was a “Cannor Adrian Contis,” and a “Kris Solon” and “Paul Solon.”
There was also “Beverly Claire Pampano,” “Mico Harina,” “Ralph Josh Bacon,” “Patty Ting” and “Sala Casim.”
They all sounded like food items, hence, Ortega dubbed this group ‘’Team Grocery.”
Like the others earlier flagged by the committee, the newly discovered names were not in the records of the Philippine Statistics Authority, the lawmaker said.
“We’re talking about public funds here. If they (Duterte’s OVP and DepEd staff) cannot provide evidence that these people are real, then we have strengthened our case for impeachment, he said.
“If this is the case that there are too many suspicious names, from snacks to senators, then … there might have been really a plan to hide where the money went,” he added.
