- Lead. A Philippine Statistics Authority official testified on Day 22 of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial that OVP confidential fund recipients included a person who died as a two-month-old infant in 1965—six decades before the funds were disbursed.
- Fact. PSA Assistant National Statistician Marizza Grande told the Senate court that multiple names on OVP liquidation records had no birth, marriage or death certificates in PSA databases, and that others matched long-deceased individuals.
- Stake. A Senate conviction would permanently bar Duterte from public office, ending any bid for the 2028 presidency she had positioned herself to contest.
On September 7, the Senate sitting as an impeachment court heard testimony about the Office of the Vice President’s disbursement of ₱500 million in confidential funds and a further ₱112.5 million that passed through the Department of Education under Duterte’s tenure as secretary. The session marked Day 22 of a trial that opened in early July and has drawn comparisons to the landmark Estrada impeachment proceedings of 2000.
Dead recipients and missing records
Marizza Grande, the PSA’s Assistant National Statistician, was called by the House prosecution panel to cross-reference the OVP’s fund recipient list against national civil registry data. Her testimony identified Marlin Sunga as one signatory: PSA records show Sunga died in November 1965, at two months of age. Other flagged names—Mary Grace Piattos, Milky Secuya, Feonna Villegas, Miggy Mango, Xiaomi Ocho and Jay Kamote—had no entries at all in birth, marriage or death registries, and several appear to reference consumer products and food items rather than real individuals.
“Nasimula na lang po namin ‘yun sa death certificate niya, two months pa lang ay namatay na” (“We found it in the death certificate: only two months old when they died”), Grande said from the witness stand, describing the Sunga record for the court.
What the charges allege
Article 1 of the impeachment complaint charges Duterte with systematic misappropriation and irregular liquidation of the OVP confidential funds totalling ₱500 million, combined with the DepEd’s ₱112.5 million. The prosecution has also begun advancing evidence under Article 2, which alleges unexplained wealth. A decision to maintain or drop the bribery charge under Article 3 is pending, with the panel signalling it considers Articles 1 and 2 its strongest grounds.
Senator Raffy Tulfo, among the senator-judges presiding over the trial, publicly called for military officials named Lachica and a counterpart to be subpoenaed as witnesses, indicating the prosecution intends to trace the cash trail beyond the liquidation documents themselves.
Wider political consequence
The impeachment trial is the first in the Philippines to reach a full evidentiary hearing in more than a decade. Duterte and her legal team maintain that confidential funds are exempt from public disclosure by their very nature, a position the prosecution contests as an attempt to insulate funds from any accountability. Conviction requires two-thirds of senator-judges voting to remove her. Beyond removal, the Senate may separately impose permanent disqualification from public office. Either outcome would reshape the political landscape ahead of 2028, when Duterte had been widely expected to mount a presidential campaign against allies of the Marcos administration.