WHAT SARA SAID THE MONEY WAS FOR

Sara Duterte finally broke her silence — sort of.

For months, she refused to say where P612.5 million in confidential funds went. Her line was always the same: she'd only answer to the Commission on Audit, not Congress. Disclosing anything would "compromise national security" and "endanger intelligence operations."

Then, in October 2025, she gave the most specific answer she'd ever given: the DepEd money was used to investigate the ₱2.4-billion laptop scandal — the one where Celeron-based laptops were bought at ₱58,300 each, overpriced by at least ₱979 million, purchased during her own father's administration.

Make of that what you will.

THE OFFICIAL JUSTIFICATIONS, UNPACKED

There were actually several justifications Sara gave at different points. Not one. Several. And they shifted over time.

When she was still DepEd Secretary (2022–2024), the stated purposes were:

- Sexual grooming of learners

- Recruitment of students into the NPA, terrorist groups, and violent extremism

- Drug use among DepEd personnel

- Protection of territorial waters and the West Philippine Sea — yes, this was cited too

Her argument was that "basic education and national security are intertwined." She needed intelligence operations because regular DepEd personnel couldn't handle these threats. The security cluster had to be called in.

For the OVP funds specifically, the justification was broader — new programs, satellite offices, securing high-ranking officials, and addressing "urgent activities" that couldn't wait for the regular budget process.

Then in 2025, a new story emerged: the money was used to build a case against former Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co for his alleged involvement in the DepEd laptop corruption scandal. She named Co's company, Sunwest Inc., as the laptop contractor.

Three different framings. One common thread — she never actually showed proof any of it happened.

WHAT THE PROBE ACTUALLY FOUND

The House probe found something much simpler and much more alarming.

Of the P612.5 million in confidential funds covered by the OVP and DepEd, the acknowledgment receipts submitted to the COA listed names like "Mary Grace Piattos" and "Kokoy Villamin" as recipients of cash. The Philippine Statistics Authority confirmed these people do not exist in the civil registry.

The receipts covered payments for rewards, travel expenses, safe house rentals, purchase of information, supplies, food aid, and medicine. 405 out of 677 individuals listed as alleged fund recipients had no verifiable records.

One receipt was dated November 2022 — acknowledging payment of P150,000 for "payment of reward (medicines)" — even though the OVP didn't have confidential funds yet in November 2022. The P125 million allocated to the OVP in December 2022 was spent in just 11 days. The NBI examined 36 sample receipts and found evidence of fraud.

NO ACCOMPLISHMENT REPORTS. NO CASE FILINGS. NOTHING.

The OVP did submit an accomplishment report to the COA. But when auditors reviewed it, they found it was essentially a blank check dressed up as paperwork — a list of confidential expenses and a broad assertion that "all activities were executed without any significant security incidents." No narrative. No breakdown. No names of operations. No outcomes.

There is no public record of any case filing, referral to the DOJ, or law enforcement recommendation that came out of Sara's stated intelligence operations — not on terrorism recruitment, not on sexual grooming, not on the laptop scandal. No arrested suspect. No grooming ring dismantled. No NPA cell broken up. No conviction traced back to the spending.

Her camp's position was essentially: trust us, it happened, but we can't show you because it's classified.

THE BIGGER PROBLEM WITH HER DEFENSE

The Office of the Vice President has no national security mandate. None.

There is no law or executive order that assigns the OVP any role in counter-terrorism, intelligence, or law enforcement. Even agencies with genuine intelligence functions — the AFP, the NICA, the PNP — still submit quarterly accomplishment reports and certificates of actual accomplishments to the COA, just in camera. That's the law.

Sara didn't do that. Or if she did, the COA said the justifications were insufficient.

When pressed in July 2025, her response to the "Mary Grace Piattos" names was that they were aliases used in intelligence operations. She said her lawyers were gathering evidence and intel experts to prove this — but only if the impeachment trial pushed through.

If informants use aliases in legitimate intelligence work, the agency still maintains an internal registry matching aliases to real identities — precisely so the COA can verify disbursements in a sealed process. If Sara had real informants with real aliases, she could have shown that documentation to auditors under confidentiality. She didn't. Or couldn't.

WHAT THE COA ACTUALLY SAID

In April 2026, the COA en banc affirmed its earlier findings — reconfirming that P73.28 million in OVP confidential funds were spent on activities "not related to their intended purposes such as surveillance, intelligence operations, or peacekeeping." The funds went to rewards and the purchase of tables, chairs, desktop computers, and printers.

The COA's language cuts through her defense cleanly: "There is no evidence of information gathering and/or surveillance activities pertinent to national security, peace and order, or the detection/prevention of illegal activities that could threaten personnel, property, and other resources under its jurisdiction."

That's not a procedural violation. That's an auditing body saying: we looked, and there's nothing here.

The COA also noted that the activities listed "appear to be governance-related in nature" — meaning even what was documented didn't match the purpose that confidential funds are legally meant to serve. The appeal filed by Sara's camp was rejected. P73.28 million has been formally disallowed and ordered returned.

WHAT IT ALL ADDS UP TO

So what did Sara's confidential funds actually investigate?

NPA recruitment, terrorism, drug use, the West Philippine Sea, and a laptop scandal involving her father's administration — for which she never disclosed any findings.

The House probe, the NBI, and the PSA: the money was disbursed to people who may not exist, through receipts that show signs of fabrication, under an office that has no legal basis to claim intelligence operations, with zero documented outcomes.

Talagang malalim pa ito kaysa sa pangalan. "Mary Grace Piattos" has become the symbol of this entire scandal — not just because the name is absurd, but because it represents a government that spent half a billion pesos and cannot name a single real person who benefited from it.