Vice President Sara Duterte (PPAB)

More alleged individuals with names that suspiciously sound like junk food names and cellphone brands have received confidential funds from the Office of the Vice President (OVP), based on further diggings by the House of Representatives.

House Deputy Majority Leader and La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega on Thursday, March 6, revealed new details from the annexes of the impeachment complaint submitted against Vice President Sara Duterte.

It seemed the infamous "Mary Grace Piattos", a supposed recipient of the secret fund whose name was a combination of local cafe Mary Grace and potato chips brand Piattos, was not the only suspicious name on the records.

There were also a "Pia Piatos-Lim" and a "Renan Piatos" who received confidential funds as well as "Xiaome Ocho"—a name that sounds awfully close to cellphone brand Xiaomi.

"Grabe naman ang 'special treatment' sa pamilya Piattos. May Mary Grace Piattos, may Pia Piatos-Lim, may Renan Piatos. Ano bang meron sa kanila at parang qualified silang lahat makatanggap ng confidential funds (The special treatment for the Piattos family is really amazing. We have Mary Grace, we have Pia, and we have Renan. What's special about them that they seem to be all qualified to receive the confidential funds)?” Ortega said.

Like Mary Grace Piattos, Ortega said none of the new names have any records of birth, marriage, or death from the Philippine Statistics Office (PSA).

"You’ll be torn between laughing and getting furious when you see ‘Xiaome Ocho’ on the list," Ortega pointed out.

"This 'Budol Gang' is getting out of hand! First, we have the Piattos family, and now even a cellphone?" he added,

The impeachment complaint, which the House of Representatives (HOR) transmitted to the Senate in a bid to start the trial, included certifications dated Dec. 8 and Dec. 11, 2024, from the PSA, which examined the list of confidential fund recipients submitted to the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.

The PSA said that out of 1,992 names linked to the OVP confidential funds, only 670 had a "most likely match" on PSA records.

Meanwhile, 1,322 individuals had no birth records, 1,456 had no marriage records (with only 536 possible matches), and 1,593 had no death records (with just 399 possible matches).

"Anong klase itong confidential funds disbursement na hindi natin matukoy kung totoong tao ba ang mga tumanggap (What kind of confidential funds disbursement is this if we cannot really identify the people who have received it)?” Ortega asked.

"Public funds ito, pero parang ginamit sa isang imaginary payroll (These are public funds, but it seems these have used for an imaginary payroll)," he added.

Ortega then pressed Duterte for answers as he said the latter "needs to explain who exactly makes up this 'Budol Gang' when she presents her defense at the impeachment trial."

“We will continue reviewing the documents attached to the impeachment complaint to expose more members of this 'Budol Gang,'" he said.

"The public deserves the truth," he added.