La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega V (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

While many headlines have been made on the alleged fictitious names from Vice President Sara Duterte’s list of confidential funds recipients, a ranking congressman says the details surrounding the supposed real persons' names are just as important.

That's why a "mini-investigation" on these non-spurios names is in order, says House Deputy Majority Leader La Union 1st district Rep Paolo Ortega V.

Reports said that an estimated 800 beneficiaries of the secret funds under the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) have actual records with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

"Kailangan din po natin siguro na tignan kung nakatanggap nga po ba sila o mayroon silang mga nakuha na pondo. Para hindi lang yung mga walang pangalan (We might also need to check if they truly received the funds. And not just those with no records)," Ortega said during a press conference Monday, April 7.

"So, we will look into that as part po ng continuing po na trabaho natin dito sa House of Representatives (as part of our continuing work here in the House of Representatives)," he added.

The overwhelming belief among House members is that the silly and absurd-sounding names that have been discovered in the acknowledged receipts (AR) for the P612.5-million total OVP and DepEd funds were invented to facilitate the release of the money. 

However, Vice President Duterte had failed to explain exactly how these funds were used, said Ortega, who for weeks had been revealing the questionable, record-less names in batches.

"So, we will do our own siguro mini-investigation. Pero nandyan naman po iyan sa committee level na so makaka-request naman po tayo (But it's already at the committee level, so we will ne able to request for details)," the La Union solon said.

Ortega says 600-plus names submitted by the OVP and 200-plus sent by DepEd to the Commission on Audit (COA) had actual records. He didn't mention any of the supposed real persons' names during the presser.

On the other side of the fence are dubious-sounding names such as Mary Grace Piattos, Pia Piatos-Lim, Renan Piatos, Xiaome Ocho, Jay Kamote, Miggy Mango, Amoy Liu, Fernan Amuy, Joug De Asim, five persons named Dodong, Honeylet Camille Sy, Feonna Biong, Feonna Villegas, Fiona Ranitez, Ellen Magellan, Erwin Q. Ewan, Gary Tanada, and Joel Linangan.

Around 4,000 ARs were submitted by the OVP and DepEd to COA. 

Vice President Duterte--the second highest official of the land--was impeached by the House last Feb. 5 partly due to the alleged misuse of P612.5 million confidential funds. 

Confidential funds are so-callled because they aren't subjected to the normal auditing process. 

The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability has been investigating the matter in aid of legislation.