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Jose Rodel Clapano - The Philippine Star
April 7, 2025 | 12:00am
This photo shows the OVP Satellite Office located in Escario Central in Camputhaw, Cebu City.
STAR / File
MANILA, Philippines — More suspicious and fictional-sounding names – some resembling celebrities and high-profile personalities – have joined the list of recipients of Vice President Sara Duterte’s P612.5 million combined confidential funds, House deputy majority leader and La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V said yesterday.
Ortega said the newly discovered fictitious names in the list of Duterte’s confidential fund recipients fuel growing public suspicion that the aliases were intentionally inserted in liquidation reports submitted by the Office of the Vice President and Department of Education in a supposed systemic attempt to hide transactions.
The lawmaker said the new names include Honeylet Camille Sy, Feonna Biong, Feonna Villegas and Joel Linangan who were listed as alleged beneficiaries of the OVP’s P500 million confidential funds while Fiona Ranitez, Erwin Q. Ewan, Ellen Magellan, Gary Tanada purportedly received a portion of the DepEd’s P112.5 million.
Ortega said that the latest names were submitted by the OVP and DepEd to the Commission on Audit (COA) when Duterte was still its secretary.
“The repeated use of fake names that were like pulled out from the movies and showbiz is not funny,” Ortega said, adding that the repetition and creativity of the names no longer seem coincidental.
“We are talking about her use of public funds. If she cannot present pieces of evidence that these names are existing people, this will be the stronger evidence against her in the impeachment trial,” Ortega said.
Like the previously flagged entries, Ortega said the new batch of names did not appear in any official birth, marriage, and death records from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Out of 1,992 supposed recipients of confidential funds at the OVP, Ortega said 1,322 had no birth records, 1,456 had no marriage records, and 1,593 had no death records.
Manila Rep. Joel Chua, chairman of the House committee on good government and public accountability, also revealed earlier that 405 out of the 677 names listed as beneficiaries of DepEd’s confidential funds under Duterte have no birth records, a clear indication that the names were allegedly fabricated.
With the Senate impeachment trial against Duterte scheduled to begin in June, Ortega said these questionable aliases could serve as direct evidence of alleged wrongdoing – unless clear, verifiable documentation is produced by the OVP to account for each name listed.
“VP Sara cannot just keep her silence here,” Ortega said.
Earlier, Ortega disclosed the controversies involving bogus-sounding names for chichirya, cellphones, fruit, the Dodong Gang, Team Amoy Asim and Team Grocery—purportedly part of the so-called Budol Gang.
Ortega said the use of aliases in government transactions is not new, especially in operations involving sensitive intelligence work.
However, Ortega warned that any use of fictitious names must comply with the documentation requirements outlined in Joint Circular 2015-01, which governs the handling of cnfidential and intelligence funds.
