House Deputy Majority Leader Paolo Ortega V of La Union on Sunday disclosed a new set of fictitious names allegedly listed as beneficiaries of Vice President Sara Duterte’s P500-million confidential funds.
The development has further fueled suspicions that large sums of public money were allegedly funneled to fictitious individuals, he said, adding the new names bore an uncanny resemblance to food items commonly found in the wet market and neighborhood groceries.
Topping the list is Beverly Claire Pampano, referencing a popular fish sold nationwide, followed by Mico Harina whose surname translates to flour, Patty Ting and Ralph Josh Bacon which evoked burger staples, and Sala Casim referring to kasim, a pork shoulder.
“It seems this is a list of items in the market or grocery,” he said.
The names of Pampano, Harina, Patty Ting, Bacon and Casim were submitted by the OVP to the Commission on Audit, he cited.
Like many others flagged by the House of Representatives, Ortega said Pampano, Harina, Patty Ting, Bacon and Casim did not match any official birth, marriage or death records from the Philippine Statistics Authority.
“If the names were not real persons, where is the fund?” he asked.
The whimsical nature of the names is just the tip of the iceberg, he said.
The absence of government-issued records suggested that someone might have deliberately crafted the grocery list to allegedly release the confidential funds, he raised.
Similar controversies, including names referencing snack brands, tech gadgets and random aliases, also appeared in previous records tied to the OVP and the Department of Education’s combined P612.5 million confidential funds.
“This is not just the first time that we saw funny names,” Ortega said.