Vice President Sara Duterte (Noel Pabalate/ MANILA BULLETIN)

“Amoy Liu", “Fernan Amuy”, and “Joug De Asim".

These were among the latest questionable names who allegedly received confidential funds from the Department of Education (DepEd) when Vice President Sara Duterte was at the helm of the agency.

Deputy Majority Leader La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega V--who comedically dubbed the trio as "Team Amoy Asim"--made the names public in a statement Sunday, March 23 following the continued research of the House of Representatives.

These entries add to a growing list of absurdly-sounding names allegedly used to justify millions in confidential fund allocations used under the DepEd.

The names join the now-notorious “Mary Grace Piattos", “Renan Piatos", “Pia Piatos-Lim",

 “Xiaome Ocho", “Jay Kamote", “Miggy Mango", and five individuals all named “Dodong” as alleged beneficiaries of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) confidential funds. 

Ortega said that Liu, Amuy, and De Asim have no birth, marriage, or death records in the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) database. This mirrored the cases of the Piattoses, Dodongs, and others who have been listed as recipients of the secret funds.

Ortega said the names were submitted by the OVP and DepEd to the Commission on Audit (CoA). 

For months now, House members have been asking Vice President Duterte to explain how an combined P612.5 million in confidential funds were spent by these offices. There has been no clear answer.

Ortega said the absence of the names from public records raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the fund disbursements.

"Kung sa listahan pa lang ay maasim na ang dating ng pekeng mga pangalan, paano pa kaya sa mga transaksyon mismo? (If the list of these fake names already smell awful, what more the actual transactions?) the House leader asked.

Out of 1,992 supposed recipients of confidential funds at OVP, Ortega said 1,322 had no birth records, 1,456 had no marriage records, and 1,593 had no death records.

Manila 3rd district Rep. Joel Chua, chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, also revealed earlier that 405 out of the 677 names listed as beneficiaries of DepEd’s confidential funds under Vice President Duterte have no birth records, a clear indication that the names were fabricated.

When asked about the questionable names during an interview in The Hague, the impeached Vice President Duterte claimed she could not verify the documents due to doubts about the chain of evidence. 

Ortega dismissed this as another attempt to evade accountability.

“Kung maayos ang sistema, bakit parang magic na lang na napunta ang pera sa mga pangalan na wala namang pagkatao? Nasaan ang mga dokumento? Nasaan ang mga sagot? Kung ito ay hindi panloloko, bakit hindi nila maipaliwanag nang maayos?” he asked.

(If the system is working fine, how come the money went to these fictitious names as if it was magic? Where are the documents? Where are the answers? If this isn't fraud, why can't it be explained properly?)

Ortega stressed that the increasing number of bizarre names indicates a seemingly deliberate scheme to fabricate recipients and misuse public funds.

“Hindi ito simpleng kapabayaan. Peke ang mga pangalan sa liquidation. Nasaan ang kanilang pananagutan? (This isn't simple negligence. The names on the liquidation are fake. Where is their accountability?)" he said.