MANILA — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is looking into nearly 2,000 other recipients of confidential funds from Vice President Sara Duterte’s office, a lawmaker said Tuesday.  

The PSA had no records for some 400 recipients of confidential funds from the Department of Education when it was still headed by Duterte, Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua earlier revealed.

“Four hundred five po to be exact ang lumalabas na wala pong record ng birth certificate. Ito po’y dito lamang sa DepEd. Hinihintay pa po namin ang resulta sa Office of the Vice President dahil 1,992 naman ang bini-verify po namin doon,” Chua told TeleRadyo Serbisyo.

“Ito po ay aming pina-priority na matapos,” PSA Assistant National Statistician Marizza Grande said in a separate interview.

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Chua said lawmakers eyed filing bills to limit confidential funds to agencies mandated with intelligence gathering and security.

He said they also wanted to tighten requirements for special disbursing officers (SDO) in charge of confidential funds.

“Iri-require po namin na dapat sila ay may permanent position sa mga departamento. Kasi ngayon po lumalabas na basta ikaw ay pinili ng head of agency, pwede ka nang maging SDO,” he said.

Duterte has denied allegations of corruption and fund misuse, saying that the House investigation was part of political persecution.

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