PSA Statistician Testifies in VP Duterte Impeachment Trial Over Alleged Misuse of Funds

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Assistant National Statistician Marizza B. Grande took the witness stand on Monday, September 7, as the House prosecution panel presented its latest witness in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. Grande was called to testify on the PSA’s verification of the identities of individuals named as recipients in acknowledgment receipts used to account for confidential fund expenditures of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd). Her testimony forms part of the prosecution’s presentation for Article 1 of the Articles of Impeachment, which accuses Duterte of the alleged systematic misappropriation and irregular liquidation of P612.5 million in confidential funds, P500 million for the OVP and P112.5 million for DepEd. Who is Marizza Grande? Grande is the Assistant National Statistician of the PSA’s Civil Registration Service, the government office responsible for the country’s civil registration system. According to the PSA, Grande previously served as chief of its Civil Register Management Division before being appointed Assistant National Statistician of the Civil Registration Service. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Northern Philippines, which she completed in 1998. She also earned a Master’s degree in Applied Statistics from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and a Master’s degree in Demography from the University of the Philippines Population Institute, which she completed in 2015. Grande has also been involved in several PSA technical working groups and committees dealing with civil registration policies, including matters concerning civil-status records and the investigation of possible fraud in civil registration. She is also the PSA’s National CRVS Focal Point and serves as project director for the Civil Registry System-Information Technology Project Phase II and the Birth Registration Assistance Project. Grande’s role became relevant to the impeachment case because the prosecution is questioning the identities of individuals listed as recipients of confidential funds. The prosecution has pointed to acknowledgment receipts containing names such as Mary Grace Piattos, among other unusual names, as part of its evidence concerning the liquidation of confidential funds. During Monday’s proceedings, Grande testified on the PSA’s verification of the names appearing in the documents. Her testimony included findings concerning alleged recipients whose names could not be matched with PSA civil registry records, as well as names that corresponded to individuals who were already deceased or were minors. Grande said the youngest supposed signatory in the acknowledgment receipts was Marlin Sunga, who died in November 1965. “Based po kasi sa death certificate po niya, two months pa lang ay namatay na po siya (because based on her death certificate, she died when she was two months old),” she said.—LDF, GMA News