MANILA – More fictitious names registered as recipients of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) confidential funds have been discovered by House lawmakers.

House Deputy Majority Leader and La Union 1st District Rep. Paolo Ortega exposed that the new batch of fictitious names, which he dubbed “Team Grocery,” has no records with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The names, Ortega said, have no matching birth, marriage, or death records from the PSA.

“Mukhang listahan po ng mga bibilhin sa palengke or grocery ang mga bagong pangalang nakita natin,” Ortega said.

The list includes names such as Beverly Claire Pampano, whose surname resembles an expensive fish; Mico Harina, whose last name translates to flour; Sala Casim, whose surname is a play on “kasim,” a pork shoulder cut; Patty Ting, whose first name is a burger ingredient; and Ralph Josh Bacon, whose last name resembles a cured pork product. These names were submitted by the OVP to the Commission on Audit (COA).

“Kung hindi sila totoong tao, nasaan napunta ang pondo?” Ortega asked, adding that the use of aliases suggests a deliberate effort to obscure fund disbursements.

Ortega revealed that out of the 1,992 supposed recipients of OVP’s confidential funds, 1,322 had no birth records, 1,456 had no marriage records, and 1,593 had no death records. He said that the absence of government-issued records suggests the names may have been deliberately created to allegedly misappropriate confidential funds.

Aside from Team Grocery, other groups of suspicious names have also been discovered, including “Team Chichirya,” “Team Gadgets,” “Team Fruits,” and the “Dodong Gang.” Additionally, names under “Team Amoy Asim” have been flagged, such as Amoy Liu, Fernan Amuy, and Joug De Asim, as recipients of confidential funds from the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd), which was headed by Vice President Sara Duterte for two years.

VP Duterte has maintained that there was no misuse of the funds in her office and the DepEd.

She has denied any irregularities in the use of the confidential funds, stating that they were intended for surveillance and intelligence-gathering activities.

Duterte also declined to comment on the names, saying she does not know if the lists being reviewed by House members are the same ones submitted by the OVP and DepEd to state auditors.

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