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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Ortega mocks VP Duterte: 'May sakit lahat ng informant?'

Ortega mocks VP Duterte: 'May sakit lahat ng informant?'

Published Aug 5, 2026 08:47 pm

At A Glance

  • Rep. Paolo Ortega mocked that Duterte's confidential fund informants were paid with medicine instead of money.
  • Dubious receipts, including one for "Mary Grace Piattos," showed medicine payments tied to P125 million in confidential funds.
  • COA auditor Roderick Wamil testified to deficiencies in the liquidation of P612.5 million confidential funds by the OVP and DepEd.
La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega V (left), Vice President Sara Duterte (PPAB)
La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega V (left), Vice President Sara Duterte (PPAB)


House Deputy Speaker La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega V hilariously assumed on Wednesday, Aug. 5 that all informants of impeachment trial respondent Vice President Sara Duterte were sickly or had an ailment of some sort.
This was Ortega's sarcastic commentary to testimony coming out of the Senate impeachment trial that dozens of confidential fund recipients-slash-informants under Duterte received "medicines" as reward.
“Nag-aalala ako doon sa mga informant ng confidential funds. Baka may sakit lahat sila, kasi gamot ang binabayad sa kanila,” Ortega told reporters in a press conference.
(I am worried about the informants of confidential funds. They might all be sick, because they are being paid with medicine.)
He said confidential informants would ordinarily be expected to receive monetary compensation commensurate with the value of the intelligence they provided.
Acknowledgement receipts
Even the most famous confidential fund recipient under Duterte--the infamous "Mary Grace Piattos"--was purportedly paid in P70,000 worth of medicines.
This was based on the acknowledgement receipt (AR) issued to Mary Grace Piattos--just one of the numerous dubious-sounding names who allegedly received confidential funds.
These ARs formed part of the 845 receipts submitted by the Office of the Vice President (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.
The ARs were shown to prosecution witness COA auditor Roderick Wamil during Tuesday's hearing.
Under the direct examination of private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan, Wamil testified at length to what he described as deficiencies in the liquidation of the total P612.5 million secret funds spent by the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) between December 2022 and the third quarter of 2023.
Impeachment respondent Duterte was elected Vice President in 2022. She served as education secretary from 2022 to 2024.
Ortega highlighted during the presser the sheer absurdity of receiving medicine as payment for intelligence work.
“Kung ako siguro iyong informant, hindi ako tatanggap ng gamot. Siyempre gusto ko compensation. Kasi importante iyong mga impormasyong ibibigay mo. Very crucial iyon sa paghahanap ng, kung may mission man kayo, may mga ine-extract sa inyong impormasyon,” he said.
(If I were the informant, I would not accept medicine. Of course, I would want compensation. Because the information you provide is important. It is very crucial in finding, if you have a mission, the data being extracted from you.)
Wamil testified that the OVP didn't provide any official receipt for the purchase of the alleged medicine rewards. This gave the prosecution more reason to assail Duterte on the confidential funds issue.

Related Tags

Reward informants OVP DepEd Sara Duterte Paolo Ortega Impeachment COA confidential funds
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