A total of 10 more questionable-sounding names--including one that could potentially be related to the infamous confidential funds recipient "Mary Grace Piattos"--were brought up Monday, Aug. 3 during respondent Vice President Sara Duterte's Senate impeachment trial.

During the proceedings, the prosecution panel presented acknowledgment receipts (ARs) submitted by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to liquidate confidential funds.

The prosecution are trying to prove contents of article I, which says that office under Duterte's control misused P612.5 million worth of confidential funds. Commission on Audit (COA) auditor Roderick Wamil was called to the witness stand Monday, or the 11th day of trial.

The additional names presented in court were Renan Piattos, Nova Santos, Mico P. Harina, Janice Marie Revilla, Patty Ting, Andy Lim, Alejandro Pikit, Feonna Biong, Sisfrunio Balsac and Gabriel Bisaya.

The first name on this list--Renan Piattos--was especially intriguing, given that Mary Grace Piattos had the most recall among the AR signatories.

House members have long suspected that Mary Grace Piattos is a fictitious name, since it is an amalgam of a popular café and a potato chips brand in the Philippines.

The name has since become a poster personality for the alleged misuse of P612.5 million worth of the secret funds on the part of Duterte, dating back to the previous 19th Congress when she was first impeached.

In a twist, it was learned during the proceedings that Mary Grace Piattos--an alleged informant--was compensated not with cash, but with "payment of rewards" in the form of "P70,000 (medicines)", as per her AR.

Private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan presented the AR issued to Mary Grace Piattos. The ARs formed part of the 845 receipts submitted by the OVP to the Commission on Audit (COA) to support the liquidation of its first P125 million confidential fund release covering Dec. 21 to 31, 2022.

Wamil, formerly assigned to the COA’s Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO), confirmed that the receipts presented before the Senate impeachment court were among those submitted by the OVP during the audit.

He testified that the receipt was not properly supported by documents showing

The witness pointed out deficiencies in other receipts presented to him by Kapunan, including one issued to Renan Piattos for P110,000 that was dated Dec. 27, 2023. This was outside the Dec. 21 to 31, 2022 period covered by the confidential fund release under audit.

Another receipt showed Nova Santos receiving P85,000 for “payment of rewards (various goods)", while Mico P. Harina acknowledged P295,000 for the purchase of supplies.

According to Wamil, the Nova Santos receipt lacked the supporting documents required for reward payments, while the Mico Harina transaction was supported only by an AR instead of an official receipt or sales invoice.

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) certifications later showed that many names on the ARs had no matching birth records, while National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) findings indicated that several acknowledgment receipts bore signatures with similarities suggesting they may have been written by the same hand.

Wamil testified that his review of all 845 acknowledgment receipts found multiple deficiencies, including receipts dated outside the covered period, undated receipts and a P150,000 discrepancy between the total reflected in the acknowledgment receipts and the OVP’s accomplishment report.

Those findings became part of the basis for the COA’s Notice of Suspension on the OVP’s liquidation of its first P125 million confidential fund release.