P1 million reward up for info on ‘Mary Grace Piattos’

MANILA, Philippines — Administration lawmakers yesterday offered a P1-million bounty for anyone who can provide information leading to the identification of an informant from the Office of the Vice President named “Mary Grace Piattos,” as the House of Representatives committee on good government and public accountability resumes tomorrow its investigation into the OVP’s alleged misuse of confidential funds.

Assistant Majority Leader and Zambales 1st District Rep. Jay Khonghun and Deputy Majority Leader and La Union 1st District Rep. Paolo Ortega V announced the reward during a press conference.

“We in the House Blue Ribbon committee and quad committee, we give importance to persons that we send
 invitations to. They should come, most especially those who signed in the acknowledgment receipts (ARs),” Khonghun said.

“So, we talked about it, we will voluntarily give and raise P1 million for whoever can provide us information on who really is this Mary Grace Piattos,” he added.

Early this month, Antipolo 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop asked an official of Commission on Audit’s intelligence and confidential funds audit office if she was aware of a reputable restaurant named “Mary Grace” and a potato chip called “Piattos,” since one AR bore the same name, with Piattos as its surname.

In the digital presentation during the hearing of the House committee, led by Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua, a document in one slide was shown indicating a signed AR bearing such name (with a signature) and with a Dec. 30 date, receiving payment as reward.

Ortega flagged the recurring fictitious names and repetitive handwriting on the receipts.

“As congressman Jay said, why don’t we include Chippy McDonald, too? What were the other fictitious names that were used?” he asked.

“It’s about time (alleged informants) attend and explain the circumstances about these alleged anomalies,” he added.

The name Mary Grace Piattos had appeared in suspicious liquidation documents linked to the alleged misuse of P612.5 million in government funds by Vice President Sara Duterte when she was also secretary of the Department of Education.

Khonghun and Ortega said the P1-million bounty underscores the importance of resolving the issue and ensuring accountability in government spending.

There were ARs bearing not just “similar handwritings, same color of ballpens in a common pattern,” but also having the same set of signatories like a certain “AAS” and “JOV,” who received a total of P280,000 and P920,000 for “purchase of information,” respectively, allegedly in December 2022.

There were a total of 776 ARs, 302 of which bore “unreadable names,” with five “repeated names.”

For breakdown, AAS received a total windfall of P280,000 – P60,000 in December 2022, P150,000 in February 2023 and P70,000 in the third quarter of that year.

JOV, however, the received larger amount (P920,000) as his/her first AR for “reward payment” indicated was P170,000, followed by P250,000 for vague “supplies” and the last was P500,000 for “medical and food aid.”