The mysterious case of “Mary Grace Piattos” is merely the ‘tip of the iceberg’ in a broader issue involving 158 acknowledgment receipts (ARs) that officials from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) must address and clarify, Manila Rep. Joel Chua said yesterday.
Chua, chair of the House Blue Ribbon Committee, revealed that the panel is considering engaging penmanship experts to examine and determine the authenticity of all 158 ARs submitted by the OVP to the Commission on Audit (COA).
He said the receipts were used to justify the disbursement of ₱500 million in confidential and intelligence funds allocated to the OVP—₱125 million per quarter from the last quarter of 2022 to the first three quarters of 2023.
The first tranche of ₱125 million was spent in just 11 days in December 2022, Chua noted.
The committee has offered a ₱1-million reward for any credible information on “Mary Grace Piattos,” a name that appeared in liquidation documents linked to the alleged misuse of government funds by the OVP.
In a press conference, Chua announced that the committee will coordinate with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to verify the identity of Piattos.
The name “Mary Grace Piattos” has captured public attention for its unusual and suspicious nature, according to Chua, but he emphasized that the name is merely the tip of a larger investigation into questionable ARs.
‘We saw many problems, that’s just one of the problems we saw,” he said.
Chua said some receipts covered periods when no confidential funds were available.
“Our theory is that the [ARs] appeared when the AOM of the COA issued them. So because of that, they were confused to justify their liquidation. They produced a lot of [ARs]), he said.
The receipts include varying amounts—₱60,000, ₱40,000, ₱400,000—are riddled with discrepancies such as mismatched dates, missing signatures, and other irregularities, Chua said.
The committee also flagged striking similarities in handwriting and ink across the receipts.
“Those strokes, although the names are different, but the stroke of how it is signed is only one. Even the ballpoint pen used has the same ink. The [ARs] submitted are a bit highly suspicious,” Chua said.
He added that if the OVP fails to fully justify the ARs, the committee may conclude that these receipts are fabricated.
House Assistant Majority Leader and Taguig Rep. Amparo Maria Zamora echoed Chua’s concerns, highlighting the OVP’s failure to meet even the simplest requirements for ARs.
“And you know, it’s very simple, ‘yung requirements. It’s just an acknowledgment receipt. It asks for a signature, name and date,” Zamora said.
However, she noted what she described as inconsistencies in the receipts.
“The many [ARs] there that we saw—there was no date, there was only a signature without a name, there was a name without a signature. There is a wrong date, not consistent with when it was released, when it was disbursed), Zamora said.
She also raised concerns over the uniformity in handwriting.
Given the large sums involved, Zamora called on Vice President Duterte and OVP Special Disbursing Officer (SDO) Gina Acosta to appear before the committee and address the purported discrepancies.
For her part, House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro lambasted Duterte over the highly questionable receipts for confidential funds bearing the signature of an apparently non-existent person named Mary Grace Piattos.
“This is a clear case of fraud and misuse of public funds. How can we trust the Office of the Vice President when they cannot even present real people who supposedly received these confidential funds? This is why Congress is now offering a P1-million reward to anyone who can present this mysterious Mary Grace Piattos,” Castro stated.
Castro emphasized that VP Sara Duterte’s continued absence from congressional hearings only reinforces suspicions about the irregular handling of confidential funds.
“The Vice President must face the Filipino people and explain these irregularities. These are public funds we’re talking about. Her deliberate avoidance of legislative scrutiny raises serious questions about transparency and accountability in her office,” Castro said.
