By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet
The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability on Tuesday has called on Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) once again to verify the civil registry records of 1,992 individuals linked to P500 million in confidential funds allegedly spent by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) under Vice President Sara Duterte.
In his December 9 letter to National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Claire Dennis Mapa, House Committee Chair and Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua asked for the verification of the Civil Registry Documents (birth, marriage, and death) of the names on the attached list in relation to the Committee’s investigation.
Said formal request on account of an earlier PSA report that revealed glaring discrepancies such as 405 names without birth records, 445 without marriage certificates and 508 without death certificates out of the 667 examined identities.
This time, the names under scrutiny appear on acknowledgment receipts (ARs) submitted by the OVP to the Commission on Audit (CoA) to justify confidential fund expenditures spanning late 2022 to the third quarter of 2023.
“A certification that these names are not in the PSA database would bolster suspicions that they do not exist and that the ARs were fabricated to justify confidential fund expenditures by the OVP and DepEd under Vice President Duterte,” Chua said.
The ARs, which serve as documentation for the distribution of funds, are now under intense scrutiny after discrepancies in the records pointed to potential fabrication. (with report from Mela Lesmoras/PTV News)
-av