House prosecutors presented more acknowledgment receipts bearing unusual names, including “Timon Andrew Pusa,” “Antonio Pagong” and “Xuniso P. Belat,” as the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte resumed Monday, August 24.
Private prosecutor Atty. Amando Virgil Ligutan presented the receipts while questioning former Office of the Vice President (OVP) Special Disbursing Officer Gina Acosta about the alleged trail of confidential funds handled by Col. Raymund Dante Lachica.
One of the receipts showed that “Xuniso P. Belat” allegedly received ₱100,000 from the OVP’s confidential fund. Other names presented before the Senate impeachment court were Don Piang, May Pamana and Shane Ngitngit.
The receipts indicated payments ranging from ₱100,000 to ₱250,000, reportedly for purposes including the purchase of information, transportation and supplies for confidential operations.
Ligutan repeatedly asked Acosta whether she personally witnessed Lachica handing the amounts reflected in the receipts to the individuals named in the documents.
Acosta said she did not.
She explained that Lachica was responsible for conducting confidential activities on the ground and was the person who disbursed the funds during the operations.
Acosta maintained that she relied on documents submitted by Lachica in preparing the liquidation of the confidential funds because she did not have access to the sensitive activities being carried out in the field.
The exchange underscored a central issue raised by the prosecution: while Acosta was the OVP’s bonded accountable officer who prepared the liquidation documents, she said she did not personally witness several of the actual cash disbursements reflected in the supporting receipts.
Ligutan further questioned why acknowledgment receipts from purported recipients of confidential funds—including the previously scrutinized “Mary Grace Piattos”—were retained by the OVP and later submitted to COA, while receipts signed by Lachica when he received large cash releases were eventually returned to him after liquidation.
Acosta said the individual recipients’ receipts came from Lachica and were later requested by COA, prompting the OVP to submit them to state auditors. She said the receipts represented individuals allegedly involved in implementing confidential operations on the ground.
Earlier in the hearing, Acosta testified that Lachica signed acknowledgment receipts upon receiving ₱125 million in December 2022, followed by three additional ₱125-million releases in 2023.
The four releases totaled ₱500 million.
Acosta also confirmed that Lachica did not have a fidelity bond with the Bureau of the Treasury, while she remained the OVP’s bonded accountable officer.
The proceedings form part of Article I of the impeachment case against Duterte, which accuses her of misusing ₱612.5 million in confidential funds allocated to the OVP and the Department of Education.
