“Mary Grace Piattos” is not alone, according to House Deputy Majority Leader Rep. Paolo Ortega V of La Union.
The lawmaker also revealed that new findings from the annexes of the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte indicate that the questionable disbursement of confidential funds extends beyond the now-infamous “Mary Grace Piattos.”
However, new documents from the impeachment complaint show that Mary Grace Piattos was not alone. Two other names, seemingly linked to her, have surfaced—“Pia Piatos-Lim” and “Renan Piatos.
But unlike Mary Grace Piattos, Ortega said Pia and Renan have only one “T” in their middle and last names, Piatos, respectively.
He said that the name “Xiaome Ocho” also appears on the list, which is seemingly named after a Xiaomi cellphone model from 2018.
“The ‘special treatment’ of the Piattos family is terrible. There is Mary Grace Piattos, there is Pia Piatos-Lim, there is Renan Piatos. What is wrong with them and they all seem to be qualified to receive confidential funds?”
Like Mary Grace Piattos, Ortega said none of them have any records of birth, marriage, or death from the Philippine Statistics Office (PSA).
“I hope they didn’t buy a chichirya warehouse with this fund. But what’s more worrying is that we don’t know where it actually went.”
But it’s not just snack-inspired names that appear in the PSA list, he said.
“You’ll be torn between laughing and getting furious when you see ‘Xiaome Ocho’ on the list,” Ortega pointed out. Xiaomi is a cellphone model from 2018 supposedly received confidential funds? This ‘Budol Gang’ is getting out of hand! First, we have the Piattos family, and now even a cellphone?”
The impeachment complaint, which the House of Representatives (HOR) has already transmitted to the Senate for trial, he said includes certifications dated December 8 and December 11, 2024, from the PSA. These documents examine the list of confidential fund recipients submitted to the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.
According to the PSA, out of 1,992 names linked to the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) confidential funds, only 670 had a “most likely match” in PSA records. Meanwhile, 1,322 individuals had no birth records, 1,456 had no marriage records (with only 536 possible matches), and 1,593 had no death records (with just 399 possible matches).
“What kind of confidential funds disbursement is this that we cannot determine if the recipients are real people? These are public funds, but they seem to have been used in an imaginary payroll,”
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.
During a House Quad Comm hearing, the name “Mary Grace Piattos” first emerged when Commission on Audit (CoA) documents revealed that she signed an acknowledgment receipt on December 30, 2022.
