Sara Duterte pressed on 'Mary Grace Piattos' identity amid impeachment trial

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Rep. Joel Chua has reminded Vice President Sara Duterte that the people are also waiting for the day when Mary Grace Piattos’ true identity will finally be revealed, after she urged government officials to work as Filipinos have long hoped for progress. Chua, in a press briefing on Friday, was asked about Duterte’s statements in an ambush interview at Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur last Wednesday, where she asked government officials to refrain from politicking and hiding their alleged ill intentions behind calls for transparency and accountability. Duterte also said that government officials should focus on addressing peace and order concerns along with economic problems, as the people have been hoping for progress to come. In response, Chua said that there are different issues that people have also waited long enough for Duterte to address. READ: ‘Mary Grace Piattos’ does not exist, PSA confirms “The people have also been waiting for the time that she will answer who Mary Grace Piattos really is. People have been waiting for her to face and answer all the allegations raised against her during the impeachment proceedings,” Chua, a member of the House of Representatives’ prosecution team for Duterte’s impeachment trial, said. “And the people have been waiting for a long time for her to answer where she got the money for the P6.7 billion worth of transactions seen by the AMLC (Anti-Money Laundering Council). I hope she answers that first before she says that we are merely politicking,” he added. READ: Sara Duterte to gov’t officials: Stop playing politics Piattos’ name popped out at the hearings of the House committee on good government and public accountability during the 19th Congress, when the panel investigated alleged confidential fund (CF) misuse. Piattos was one of the names that appeared as signatories on acknowledgment receipts (ARs), or the documents submitted to the Commission on Audit proving that project funding reached its intended beneficiaries — which, in this case, were payments for information shared by confidential informants. Many lawmakers believe Piattos and other names who signed the ARs are fictitious personalities since the names did not exist in the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) live birth, marriage, and death database. Duterte’s call to stop politicking came after the first week of her impeachment trial. After several months of waiting, the Senate Impeachment Court finally convened to start the trial and hear the evidence and witnesses. Out of the four Articles of Impeachment, the prosecution chose to discuss Article IV first, or the ground that focuses on Duterte’s threat to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez assassinated if she herself gets killed. The threat was prompted by Duterte’s rant over the detention of her chief-of-staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, at the House premises. Lopez was detained after she was cited for contempt by the House committee on good government and public accountability, as she supposedly committed undue interference during the panel’s investigation of alleged CF misuse. As she was infuriated over Lopez’s detention and subsequent attempts to transfer her to the Correctional Institute for Women, Duterte badmouthed the Marcos couple and Romualdez. At one point, Duterte was asked if she is concerned about her security; she replied by urging people not to worry since she had contracted an assassin to kill the three if she herself gets killed. Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon, meanwhile, countered Duterte’s call for the government to work, saying that there are many things being done by the current administration and even by the House despite the ongoing impeachment proceedings. “We have to answer her claims that the government is doing nothing, because it’s not true. So there are many different interventions done by the government to address the different economic issues faced by the country today,” Ridon said. “There are discussions on how to raise salaries of workers in different regions; there are talks on how the country’s elevation into an upper middle income status will be felt by ordinary Filipinos. So it’s not true that it is consumed by politics only […] there is a response to the baseline issues,” he added. Earlier, House Deputy Speaker Janette Garin also reminded Duterte that the impeachment proceedings were borne out of a yearning for accountability. In the same briefing, Garin said that acting on impeachment complaints — and pursuing a case after finding probable cause to impeach Duterte — are part of lawmakers’ duties under the 1987 Constitution. Garin explained that they cannot be selective in what job they have to fulfill, as lawmakers have been fulfilling their legislative roles despite the previous impeachment hearings in the House, and now, the trial at the Senate. /mr