‘Magellan,’ ‘Fiona’ found on VP Sara’s secret fund list recipients

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MANILA, Philippines — The list of “non-existent” recipients of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education’s (DepEd) confidential funds (CFs) continues to grow, this time with multiple “Fionas,” a “Magellan,” and an individual with the surname “Ewan” — a Filipino slang for “I don’t know.”

House Deputy Majority Leader and La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V bared another list of odd names, which he said resemble known Filipino figures and add to the “fueling concerns about the authenticity of government disbursements.”

• Honeylet Camille Sy
• Feonna Biong
• Feonna Villegas
• Fiona Ranitez
• Ellen Magellan
• Erwin Q. Ewan
• Gary Tanada
• Joel Linangan

According to Ortega, Honeylet Camille Sy, Feonna Biong, Feonna Villegas, and Joel Linangan were listed as alleged beneficiaries of the OVP’s P500-million CF, while Fiona Ranitez, Erwin Q. Ewan, Ellen Magellan, Gary Tanada purportedly received portions of the DepEd’s P112.5-million CF.

Odd names

These CF recipients with odd names also have no official birth, marriage, and death records from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), but these names were on the list submitted by the OVP and DepEd to the Commission on Audit (COA).

“This is not funny anymore; they repeatedly use fake names they seem to get from movies and showbiz,” Ortega said in Filipino.

“We are talking about public funds here. If they cannot present evidence that these are real people then this will be strong evidence against VP Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial,” he added.

Earlier, Ortega unveiled a set of names he dubbed as “Team Grocery.”

• Beverly Claire Pampano, whose surname resembles a popular fish
• Mico Harina, whose surname translates to flour
• Sala Casim, whose surname is a homophone of “kasim,” a pork shoulder cut widely used in Filipino dishes like adobo and menudo
• Patty Ting, whose first name means a small flat cake of minced meat.
• Ralph Josh Bacon, whose last name resembles a cured and smoked pork

CF recipients bearing the names Mary Grace Piattos, Renan Piatos, Pia Piatos-Lim, Xiaome Ocho, Jay Kamote, Miggy Mango, Amoy Liu, Fernan Amuy, and Joug De Asim were also flagged in the previous weeks.

Confidential funds

In December 2024, the House committee on good government and public accountability submitted 1,992 individuals linked to the alleged misuse of the OVP confidential funds.

Citing the PSA, Ortega said 670 of the 1,992 names had a “most likely match” in PSA records; 1,322 individuals had no birth records; 1,456 had no marriage records (with only 536 possible matches); and 1,593 had no death records (with just 399 possible matches).

Earlier, panel chair Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua said 405 of the 667 names found on the acknowledgment receipts for the CFs of the Duterte-led DepEd have no record with the PSA.

Ortega said the use of aliases in government transactions is not new, including in operations “involving sensitive intelligence work,” but the use of  “fictitious names must comply with the documentation requirements outlined in Joint Circular 2015-01, which governs the handling of confidential and intelligence funds.”

“Under the circular, agencies must maintain sealed logs linking aliases to real, verifiable identities, to prevent fraudulent use of public funds. Failing to do so could constitute misuse of state resources,” Ortega pointed out.

Citing COA Commissioner Heidi Mendoza, the lawmaker stressed that “aliases alone are insufficient to justify fund disbursements” and that “clear and traceable documentation must exist linking these names to actual beneficiaries.”