THE prosecution in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte will present a witness from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) who will prove that the recipients of confidential funds identified as “Mary Grace Piattos” and “Milky Secuya” are fictitious.
House prosecutor Terry Ridon said on Friday the witness will testify on supposed recipients whose names could not be found in civil registry records.
“So we can really show that these people are fake, fictitious,” Ridon said during an online press briefing.
The prosecution will also put on the stand National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) forensic document examiners who will analyze the handwriting and signatures on the acknowledgment receipts (ARs).
Ridon said the NBI had examined 36 original acknowledgment receipts and found others bearing different names of recipients that were written or signed by the same persons.
He said the ARs were crucial because they documented the supposed end of the trail of the confidential funds.
“And of course, that is where we can see that the acknowledgment receipts are where the presentation of the flow of these confidential funds ends,” Ridon said.
The evidence from the PSA and NBI will form part of the prosecution’s presentation on the alleged misuse of confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd).
The prosecution is seeking to account for P612.5 million in confidential funds released by the two agencies during the period that Duterte headed them.
The OVP received P500 million in confidential funds through four cash advances from December 2022 through the first three quarters of 2023, while DepEd received P112.5 million in three P37.5-million tranches during the first three quarters of 2023.
Ridon said the prosecution would assess its evidence on a witness-by-witness basis before deciding whether it had presented enough evidence on the confidential funds article and proceed to the next charge.
The prosecution also plans to have former DepEd special disbursing officer Edward Fajarda testify on the P112.5 million in confidential funds released to the department.
Ridon said Fajarda’s testimony could further strengthen the prosecution’s case if he reiterates that Duterte instructed him to turn over DepEd confidential funds to a non-DepEd personnel.
“If he just repeats his statement that Vice President Duterte was also the one who gave instructions to give the DepEd confidential funds to a non-DepEd personnel, I think this would also be a strong demonstration of confidential funds misuse,” Ridon said.
Another prosecution witness, former OVP special disbursing officer Gina Acosta, earlier testified that Duterte instructed her to turn over P125 million in OVP confidential funds to former OVP security officer Col. Raymund Dante Lachica.
Ridon said the prosecution would decide as the trial progresses whether it still needs to present Lachica and former DepEd security officer Col. Dennis Nolasco.
He said any further testimony from the two security officers could merely add to evidence the prosecution believes has already established misuse of the confidential funds.
