‘Team Amoy Asim’ joins ‘Mary Grace Piattos’ in alleged VP fund recipients

National

A LAWMAKER has revealed more peculiar names in the list of alleged recipients of the confidential funds for Vice President Sara Duterte.0

Dubbed as “Team Amoy Asim,” the new list of names revealed by House Deputy Majority Leader Paolo Ortega V included “Amoy Liu,” “Fernan Amuy,” and “Joug de Asim.” They were among the alleged recipients of P112.5 million in confidential funds for the Department of Education (DepEd) when it was still led by Duterte.

Previous controversial names included “Mary Grace Piattos,” “Renan Piatos,” “Pia Piatos-Lim,” and others whose names resembled brands or common items.

According to Ortega, he recently discovered “Team Amoy Asim” while the House of Representatives continued its review of evidence in preparation for Duterte’s impeachment trial.

The La Union lawmaker said they focused on the alleged fake acknowledgment receipts for the P612.5-million confidential funds used by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and DepEd.

Ortega said that according to the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, these individuals lack birth, marriage, or death records in the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) database.

Ortega added that 1,322 out of 1,992 recipients of OVP confidential funds were not found in PSA’s birth records, along with 1,456 who lacked marriage records, and 1,593 with no death records.

“What kind of payroll is this? All the names seem to have been made up. Something like this is impossible if we’re following the right procedure,” he said in the Inqurier report.

Last week, Ortega disclosed the identities of seven beneficiaries of OVP confidential funds known as the “Dodong Gang,” namely “Jay Kamote,” “Miggy Mango,” “Dodong Alcala,” “Dodong Bina,” “Dodong Bunal,” “Dodong Darong,” and “Dodong S. Barok.”

Impeached by the House of Representatives on February 5, Duterte has denied allegations of confidential funds misuse in her office.(Rey Martin Rio, USJ-R Comm Intern)