Dead since 1965: PSA traces confidential fund payees to infants, decedents

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

MANILA – More than six in 10 people named as recipients of confidential funds handled by Vice President Sara Duterte have no record of birth, marriage, or death in the national civil registry, a Philippine Statistics Authority official testified before the Impeachment Court.

Assistant National Statistician Marizza B. Grande told the court that 1,685 of the 2,669 individuals listed in the liquidation documents of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education for 2022 and 2023 could not be located in the PSA database.

Among the names the agency could not match was Marlin Sunga, which corresponds in PSA records to a two-month-old infant who died on November 2, 1965.

“So kung gayon, Miss Grande, ilang taon na pong patay itong si Marlin Sunga nitong 2023?” prosecution counsel Atty. Mae Divinagracia asked.

“61,” Grande replied.

Sunga is one of 37 names on OVP acknowledgment receipts that PSA records show belonged to people who were already dead when the payments were supposedly made.

Duterte faces charges of high crimes, graft, and betrayal of public trust over the alleged systemic misuse, irregular disbursement, and improper liquidation of PHP 612.5 million in combined confidential funds from the two offices.

The testimony, delivered on Day 22 of the trial, marks the first time a government statistical agency has placed the scale of the discrepancy on the record under oath.

Grande said the most widely discussed name in the documents, Mary Grace Piattos, returned nothing at all.

“Base sa information na binigay, at sa aming database, walang record po ng kapanganakan, walang record ng kasal, at walang record ng kamatayan ang isang Mary Grace Piattos,” she told the court.

Asked about the character of the names she reviewed, Grande said several stood out immediately.

“I found them unusual kasi unique yung mga names na ito,” she said.

Other names the PSA could not match to any birth, marriage, or death record include Arthur Baon, Beverly Claire Pampano, Matthew Keso, Charles Sampaloc Jr., Timon Pusa, Tomas Panda, and Maxine Callos.

Several of the unmatched names correspond to Filipino words or commercial brands, a pattern that first drew public attention when the acknowledgment receipts were submitted to the Commission on Audit.

Those documents also carried the names Ralph Josh Bacon, Antonio Pagong, Timon Andrew Pusa, and Xuniso Belat.

Acknowledgment receipts presented at trial show that individuals with no civil registry record received substantial sums.

Danrick Otso was recorded as receiving PHP 500,000, Matthew Keso PHP 250,000, Tina Manching PHP 250,000, Xiame Otso PHP 100,000, and Timon Pusa PHP 100,000.

A second category of payee consists of names the PSA successfully matched, but to people who had already died.

Fortunato Salig appears on an OVP acknowledgment receipt dated August 2, 2023 for PHP 200,000; the single match in PSA records is a man who died on June 29, 2011.

“Ayon po sa kanyang death certificate, ang cause of death ay uncal herniation antecedent cause cerebrovascular disease, probably hemorrhagic. Ang other causes po dito ay community acquired pneumonia,” Grande said.

Rodolfo P. Traya appears on a receipt dated March 5, 2023 for PHP 120,000, but PSA records show a man of that name died on May 4, 2021.

Emilio Sagan, listed in a 2023 acknowledgment receipt for PHP 70,000, matches a man who died on July 28, 2015 of cardiopulmonary arrest secondary to aspiration and secondary to massive hemoptysis secondary to pneumonia.

A third category involves children.

Divinagracia told the court that 25 names in the liquidation records belonged to minors, three of them below three years old.

Miko Alquizar was recorded as receiving PHP 400,000 in March 2023, but the PSA matched the name to a child born in 2022.

Beatrice Cuenca appears on a receipt for PHP 400,000, and the agency likewise matched that name to a child born in 2022.

Mikay delos Reyes appears on a March 2023 receipt for PHP 200,000, matched by the PSA to a child born in 2020.

A fourth category concerns documents that appear authentic on their face but fail on comparison.

Grande said some names on the acknowledgment receipts matched individuals holding marriage certificates in PSA records, but the signatures on the two sets of documents did not correspond.

At least 152 of the 2,669 names produced only a single matching entry in the Civil Registry System, which the agency treats as insufficient for positive identification.

The PSA formalized its findings in a certification transmitted to the House of Representatives.

“Nagsubmit kami ng letter of certificate dated November 5, 2025 sa Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability through Representative (Joel) Chua,” Grande said.

That certification, which reported negative birth, marriage, and death records for Mary Grace Piattos, was issued by Undersecretary Claire Dennis S. Mapa, National Statistician and Civil Registrar General.

The money at the center of the case moved in unusually large blocks.

The OVP received PHP 500 million in confidential funds, withdrawn from Landbank Shaw Boulevard in four single-day tranches of PHP 125 million each.

One of those tranches was disbursed in cash over 11 days, from December 21 to December 31, 2022, an average of more than PHP 11.36 million per day across the Christmas holidays.

Bank officials testifying at earlier hearings described the pace and the cash-only character of the transactions as irregular.

The Department of Education, which Duterte headed as secretary, drew PHP 112.5 million in confidential funds through three withdrawals of PHP 37.5 million each.

Confidential funds are lump-sum appropriations available to civilian agencies for surveillance and information-gathering activities.

Under the 2015 joint circular issued by the Commission on Audit, the Department of Budget and Management, and three other agencies, such funds are liquidated through documents submitted to a restricted COA audit team rather than through ordinary public disclosure, which is why acknowledgment receipts became the principal evidentiary trail in this case.

Conviction in an impeachment trial requires the concurrence of two-thirds of all members of the Senate, and carries removal from office and disqualification from holding any further public office.