September 7, 2026

The prosecution called Marizza B. Grande as its tenth witness. She took the oath and described supervising the PSA Civil Registration Service and reviewing requests, verification results and official certifications.

Grande described a four-stage process: receiving requests, searching the Civil Registry System, consolidating results, and securing review and approval. Staff searched each submitted name against birth, marriage and death records.

Grande reported that 398 of 677 names on the DepEd list and 1,287 of 1,992 on the OVP list had no birth, marriage or death record in the database. On redirect she confirmed the combined 1,685 of 2,669 names amounted to approximately 63%.

Reverification of single-match names produced 37 death certificates: 32 for OVP names and five for DepEd names. Grande also identified birth-record matches indicating 20 minors on the OVP list and five on the DepEd list.

The prosecution offered these records to support its contention that confidential funds were liquidated under nonexistent names and names matching deceased people and children. Answering the chair about Beatrice Cuenca, Grande said she could not identify the receipt signer from the matching birth record.

On cross-examination, Grande said PSA had received the House committee’s list and request letter, not the acknowledgement receipts. She said its certifications attested to the availability of records in the database, rather than the existence of the people named.

Grande acknowledged that births, marriages and deaths can go unregistered and that late registration affects what appears in the database. She explained that searches retrieve similar spellings and similar-sounding names for review, and confirmed having said at an earlier hearing that negative results were not 100% accurate.

Defense counsel Justin Nicol B. Gular questioned the release of civil-registry documents without the individuals' consent. Grande said consent had not been obtained. She said PSA relied on Section 13(f) of the Data Privacy Act, checked the request's legitimate purpose and limited the information to what was proportionate to the request. She identified the House committee's ongoing investigation as the purpose and confirmed that the 2026 certifications had been requested by the public prosecutor without a subpoena. Prosecutor Mae Sancho Divinagracia invoked the exception for establishing claims and defenses in legal proceedings.

Grande said PSA records judicially authorized aliases but does not track code names or operational identities. She told Villanueva that verification of a person behind an alias would require the registered identity and details such as birth date, birthplace and parents’ names. Later, Gular told Hontiveros that the receipt names were aliases and said the defense would address the matter during its evidence presentation.

Asked to compare the 63% result with other requests, Grande called it unusual and said the highest results she recalled elsewhere were 30% to 40%. Divinagracia told the chair that the submitted list excluded receipts containing only signatures or unreadable names.

Grande completed direct examination, cross-examination and redirect. The defense declined recross; after further senator-judge questions, Escudero excused her from the witness stand.