Former Department of Education (DepEd) Undersecretary and Chief-of-Staff Michael Poa maintained during the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte that he was completely unaware of questionable or fictitious names appearing on acknowledgment receipts used for the agency’s confidential funds.
Testifying as a hostile witness for the House prosecution panel on Day 21 of the trial, Poa was questioned by Senator Erwin Tulfo regarding who authorized disbursements to individuals using questionable identities or aliases.
Poa responded that he could only assume authorization was granted by whoever signed the liquidation reports.
When directly asked if he was aware that fictitious names were listed on the acknowledgment receipts, Poa stated:
“Hindi po.”
Poa, who also serves as a member of Duterte’s legal defense team, explained that confidential documents were delivered to his office inside sealed envelopes to be forwarded to authorities, which restricted him from reviewing their contents.
He noted that while he had requested a single sample receipt in the past to understand DepEd’s submissions to the Commission on Audit (COA), he did not recall seeing any fictitious names on that document.
According to Poa, he only became aware of the dubious names—such as “Mary Grace Piattos”—after the documentation was made public during congressional committee hearings.
“At that time that I was in DepEd, wala akong nakita na mga ganitong acknowledgement receipts,” Poa testified.
When asked how he would have responded had he noticed those names during his tenure at DepEd, Poa indicated he would have sought clarification:
“I will ask if that’s allowed in confidential operations, kung talagang fictitious or aliases.”
Poa further admitted that he lacks formal military or intelligence training, clarifying that his understanding of confidential operations is based entirely on reading materials rather than operational experience.