THE prosecution team has included Mary Grace Piattos — by all accounts, a fictitious name — on its list of intended witnesses for the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Mary Grace Piattos was one of many fictitious names used to liquidate public funds by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), when Duterte was still its secretary. The signature on the Piattos acknowledgment receipt serves as evidence of fund misuse in the vice president’s impeachment.
Other suspicious names on the vice president’s acknowledgment receipts, like Piattos, incorporated fruits, popular local snack brands, fast-food chains, bakeshops, celebrities and even tech companies. These included Chippy McDonald, Kokoy Villamin, Xiaomi Ocho, Cannor Adrian Contis, Fernando Tempura, Jay Kamote, Miggy Mango, Joug De Asim, Amoy Liu, Fernan Amuy, Pia Piatos-Lim, Renan Piatos, May Pamana, Erwin Q. Ewan and Kristine Applegate Estrada.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) checked their national database and confirmed there were no birth, marriage or death records for anyone named “Mary Grace Piattos.” Lawmakers even offered a P1-million reward for anyone who could step forward and prove she actually existed, but no one ever came.
The PSA confirmed that 1,322 out of 1,992 unique names submitted for the OVP and 405 out of 677 for DepEd had no official records, totaling over 1,700 fabricated or nonexistent names.
The list of witnesses was in the pretrial brief that House prosecutors submitted last week to the Senate sitting as an impeachment court. The trial is scheduled to start this July 6.
Defense unfazed
The vice president’s defense team said it is not concerned by the reported inclusion of Mary Grace Piattos on the list of prosecution witnesses.
Defense spokesman Michael Poa said the decision to present Piattos as a witness is entirely within the prerogative of the prosecution and carries no implication for the defense.
“The presentation of witnesses is a matter for the prosecution panel to decide,” Poa said, adding that the defense remains prepared to address any testimony that may be presented during the proceedings.
Poa said the defense panel is prepared to cross-examine Piattos should she be called to testify, as well as any other witnesses presented by the prosecution.
He emphasized that the defense team has consistently prepared for all possible scenarios in the proceedings and will exercise its right to challenge testimonies and evidence introduced by the opposing side.
Sealed BIR box
On Thursday, Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. said the sealed box containing the income tax records of Duterte, her husband Manases Carpio and their companies may be opened and marked during her impeachment trial.
The box was submitted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) after the House subpoenaed the tax records while considering two impeachment complaints against Duterte. Although the House Committee on Justice received the box, its members voted not to open it and to leave it to the Senate impeachment court to do so during trial.
But House prosecutors sought to open the sealed box for its pretrial marking of evidence.
But during a briefing on Thursday, Bantug said the box will remain with the Senate impeachment court.
“Based on the record that I reviewed, it’s part of the submission [of the House prosecution panel] as received by the Office of the Secretary,” Bantug said.
Asked whether the box can be opened during the trial, Bantug said, “I would suppose so.”
“But what I can say for certain is that in the pretrial conference, [wherein] the clerk of court presiding, that decision cannot be made. That is beyond my authority,” Bantug said.
He said the prosecution panel had asked that the box be opened, inventoried and be marked. “That’s something that the pretrial conference, that the clerk of court cannot decide on.”
“Although we distributed copies of the manifestation by electronic mail to the members of the impeachment court, I don’t have information if there is any discussion on it,” Bantug said.
He said the pretrial conference was supposed to be finished Thursday evening. It dragged on for five days due to the voluminous documents that needed to be marked.
“We’re very, very hopeful that we will be able to complete the marking of evidence tonight. Both parties will be working on the exhibits until 7 p.m. So, at this point, I am very confident that we will be able to finish [the marking],” he added.
Bantug said once the pretrial conference ends “the staff work will begin for the drafting of the pretrial order.” Asked when the pretrial order would be released, Bantug said, “I cannot estimate yet the time. But we will finish it as fast as possible. I talked to the staff, I told them that if we have to work on the weekend then we would.” The House prosecution panel said it remains confident that the controversy surrounding the sealed box would not delay the trial.
Ako Bikol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon, a member of the House prosecution team, said the most important consideration at this stage is that the BIR box be officially marked as evidence for presentation during the impeachment proceedings.
Ridon expressed optimism that the evidence-marking process involving the disputed box could be completed within the week, allowing the trial preparations to proceed as planned.
“The critical issue is that the BIR box is properly identified and marked as evidence. Its inclusion in the prosecution’s evidence is what matters at this point,” Ridon said.
No diversion
Malacañang on Thursday rejected Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano’s claim that the Marcos administration was using the impeachment trial to divert public attention from the investigation into alleged anomalies in flood control projects.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said there was no basis for Cayetano’s claim, insisting that law enforcement agencies continued to pursue those responsible for the alleged irregularities.
“Who told him that the focus would only be on the vice president’s impeachment trial? We have already seen how the National Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice have been carrying out their work,” Castro said during a press conference.
“Maybe since he likes social media, he’s busy on using Facebook, maybe he’ll see the updates on what’s going on there — how the government is working to hold the perpetrators accountable and will not focus on the impeachment trial,” she added.
During a Facebook Live on Wednesday, Cayetano described the Marcos administration’s alleged shift in focus to Duterte’s impeachment trial as “selective justice.”
“Because if what the administration wants is for us to forget all the other corruption issues for now and focus on the impeachment first because it is important, then that would be selective justice, wouldn’t it?” the senator said.
But Castro said Duterte’s impeachment was not even included in the agenda of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s meetings with his Cabinet secretaries.
She also said that the executive branch remained focused on governance and project implementation.
“So where exactly is former Senate president Alan Peter Cayetano getting these stories from? Perhaps you should ask him the next time you have the chance. Although it seems he spends most of his time on Facebook, so you may not be able to reach him. But if the opportunity arises, ask him where he gets these stories,” Castro said.
The Palace official also said neither the impeachment trial nor any other political issue would hamper government work, but cautioned against possible obstructionists.
“What Sen. Alan Cayetano is saying is pure intrigue, baseless and unsubstantiated. So, I hope our countrymen will learn and find out who is really saying something with meaning,” she added.
