OVP’s possible fake receipts bigger issue than ‘Piattos’ – Chua

Vice President Sara Duterte —RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — The possibility that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) fabricated acknowledgment receipts (ARs) for confidential expenses is a bigger issue than the supposed fake identities of the signatories like Mary Grace Piattos, Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua said on Monday.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Chua was asked about the issue involving Piattos. He said this is just the tip of the iceberg as Piattos is just one of the names who signed the 158 ARs from the OVP.

READ: P1-M reward for information on Mary Grace Piattos – House lawmakers

“More than that, actually her name was highlighted — Mary Grace Piattos — because, as what Cong. (Romeo) Acop said, it seems to be a mixture of food products. But more than that, there are other problems we have seen, that’s only one of the problems that we encountered,” Chua said.

Chua, chairperson of the House of Representatives committee on good government and public accountability, said there is a possibility that the OVP rushed to fabricate ARs when the Commission on Audit (COA) disallowed a huge chunk of the OVP’s confidential funds in 2022.

According to the lawmaker, there were also instances when ARs were issued during a timeframe when the OVP was yet to receive its confidential fund (CF).

Initially, the OVP did not have its CF in 2022 as the budget was crafted when former Vice President Leni Robredo was still in office.  The CF for OVP under incumbent Vice President Sara Duterte, amounting to P125 million, was released in December and it was spent in just 11 days.

READ: DBM says OVP’s 2022 confidential funds technically not a fund transfer — Co

READ: Sara Duterte confirms requesting P125M secret fund for OVP in 2022

Chua pointed out that some of the ARs were dated November 2022, which means confidential expenditures were supposedly made before the OVP received the CF.

“On top of that, there are 158 acknowledgment receipts, which they issued on dates that they did not have a confidential fund. So we discovered that for example in November 2022, that time they did not have a confidential fund, but they issued an acknowledgement receipt,” he said.

“They say it is a clerical error only, a typographical error, but how do you explain 158 acknowledgement receipts that were issued in months that they did not have a CF? So our theory is that the ARs came out when the COA released an audit observation memorandum. They rushed because of that, just to justify their liquidations. They crafted several acknowledgement receipts,” he added.

When asked to clarify if he thinks the ARs were fabricated by the OVP, Chua said this is the importance of having OVP officials present at the hearing so that they can dispute allegations.

“Well if they cannot answer these issues properly, this might be the case (fake). Because you know, if you look at the volume of the ARs they released, it’s pro-forma, it’s just the same,” Chua pointed out.

Taguig 2nd District Rep. Amparo Maria Zamora, meanwhile, said that there would have been no problem if the ARs were filled out properly.

“The requirements are very simple. It’s just an acknowledgement receipt. It asks for a signature … of a name, and a date. We saw so many acknowledgment receipts that were without dates, some had signatures without written names. There were others without signatures. Some had wrong dates, it did not correspond to the dates when the funds were released,” Zamora said.

“The requirements to release the funds were so simple only, but it was not complied with. So on my end, it’s really questionable … You know, it casts doubt and that’s why we asked that the Vice President and the special disbursing officer appear before the hearings and explain things,” she added.

Expenses made by the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte have been scrutinized following COA’s report on irregularities.

Regarding DepEd, there have been questions about the low number of classrooms constructed while Duterte was education secretary.

Eventually, it was revealed that the DepEd under Duterte supposedly made it seem that their CFs were used for a youth training program when it was the Armed Forces of the Philippines and local government units that shouldered the expenses.

READ: DepEd under Duterte makes it seem it’s funding AFP training – solon