Prosecution invites ‘Mary Grace Piattos’ to VP trial to see who's lying

MANILA, Philippines — After it was revealed that the prosecution had listed among its witnesses confidential fund (CF) recipient Mary Grace Piattos for Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, one question remained: why invite someone whom you claim to be non-existent?

The answer, prosecution spokespersons Atty. Jay Tolosa and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said in a press briefing on Friday, is that Piattos and the defense are being given a new chance to disprove allegations that signatories in the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) CF acknowledgment receipts (ARs) are not fictitious personalities.

“That’s a good point, if she does not exist, why name her as a witness?  But that’s exactly the point.  This is the opportunity for her, if she actually exists, to come forward and say, here I am presenting myself before the impeachment court, ready to testify,” Tolosa, the new addition to the private prosecution panel, said.

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READ: ‘Mary Grace Piattos’ does not exist, PSA confirms

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“So if she does not appear, this just supports our position that she’s a made up person,” he added.

Alonto Adiong admitted that the prosecution believes that Piattos is only a made-up personality, as revealed in the hearings of the House of Representatives’ committee on good government and public accountability during the 19th Congress, and the current committee on justice’s clarificatory hearings on the two impeachment complaints against Duterte.

The Lanao del Sur solon was referring to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report stating that Piattos does not exist in their live birth, marriage, and death database; and the testimony of National Bureau of Investigation forensic examiner Carolyn Moldez-Pitoy that the ARs or proof of payment for the CF were signed by the same few persons — by as few as seven individuals.

READ: NBI says several OVP secret fund receipts signed by same persons

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“We wanted for the agencies involved in determining the existence of a particular person with this particular name to confirm to the committee on justice that there is really a Mary Grace Piattos, that she is not a fictitious character, that this is based on an actual living person.  Unfortunately, the PSA came out with the report that there’s no record whatsoever on a Mary Grace Piattos who was born or wed,” Alonto Adiong said.

“Our contention is that, and confirmed by the PSA, that Mary Grace Piattos does not exist and has no record.  And therefore the logical conclusion that we can derive is that the acknowledgement receipts […] those who received the confidential funds… might probably be a made-up character,” he added.

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Alonto Adiong said that the way to establish this fact is through a neutral ground, which is the Senate Impeachment Court.

“Now that’s our allegation and the only way to establish that is through a proper forum which is being agreed by both sides, and the proper forum is the court,” he noted.

“Let the court find out who really is Mary Grace Piattos,” he added.

On Thursday, copies of the prosecution’s pre-trial brief showed that key personalities, including OVP chief-of-staff Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez and Piattos, were among the 57 witnesses listed by the panel for Duterte’s trial.

Lopez and Piattos were among the 27 witnesses that the prosecution would like to be admitted for Article I of the Articles of Impeachment, or the allegations of CF misuse.

Lopez will be asked, the prosecution said, to take the witness stand so that she can “prove that respondent misused and misappropriated confidential funds” while Piattos will be asked to “testify on their alleged receipt of confidential funds.”

Most of the individuals mentioned as witnesses for Article I were the same individuals invited by the House committee on good government and public accountability, when the panel started investigating Duterte and her offices for alleged CF misuse.

At one point in the committee on good government hearings, former Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop noticed that a certain Mary Grace Piattos — a name similar to a restaurant and a potato chip brand — signed off the ARs.

Later on, Alonto Adiong himself showed two ARs — one for the OVP and another for DepEd — which were both received by a certain Kokoy Villamin.  However, the signatures and handwriting used by the Villamin in the two documents differed.

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Since the good government panel hearings up to the committee on justice’s discussions on the impeachment complaints, Duterte’s lawyers or the defense panel have not addressed the issue of Mary Grace Piattos, nor did someone appear before the committees to claim that she was the person behind the supposed alias. /mr