Sara's list

While America is in the grip of a mystery over a list --that famous Jeffrey Epstein list of clients (and whether Donald Trump is in them as Elon Musk claims, and why the heck the federal government isn’t releasing it), we here are having our own list brouhaha.

- Joseph T. Gonzales [e-mail]

Nothing to do with sex clients, unfortunately. It’s the vice president’s list, and just like Epstein, we're sure not getting any visibility on that. It’s been months with no further details on such humdingers as Mary Grace Piattos, Chippy McDonald, and Kokoy Villamin, and why more than a thousand of those names couldn’t be traced in our birth registries.

This week though, Sara Duterte did shed some light on the use of fictitious people’s names in the list of recipients of her confidential funds. The veep has confirmed those names were just aliases used for sensitive intelligence operations.

True --who would list down the names of spies on a payroll. That would be a shocking breach of national security if the names of those spying “for our country” were exposed. They would be exposed as tattletales, ratting on their neighbors and friends, and betraying the trust of those around them. All for the sake of some measly coins or worse, currying favors from the political overlords.