Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III speaks during the Senate Impeachment Court Day 20 proceedings on Tuesday, Sept. 1, as he draws a distinction between aliases and fictitious names amid scrutiny of acknowledgment receipts linked to Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged confidential fund spending.
Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Tuesday stressed that an alias must correspond to an actual person as questions persisted over unusual names appearing on acknowledgment receipts linked to Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged confidential fund spending.
Sotto made the distinction during the Senate Impeachment Court proceedings, where the validity of names used in documents supporting confidential fund expenditures has emerged as an issue.
“If there is a person behind the alias, then it is an alias. If there is no person behind the name, it is a fictitious name or a fake name,” Sotto said in a manifestation.
He cited Republic Act No. 6085, the law regulating the use of aliases in the Philippines, as the legal basis for his remarks.
Among the names that have surfaced on acknowledgment receipts scrutinized during the proceedings were Mary Grace Piattos, Andy Lim, Xuniso P. Belat, Miggy Mango and Timon Andrew Pusa.
Sotto said the law generally permits the use of pseudonyms for limited purposes, including literary, cinema, television and other entertainment activities.
The discussion followed prosecution counsel Mae Divinagracia’s reference to the law after senator-judge Robin Padilla pointed out that aliases had also been used by figures in Philippine history.
The acknowledgment receipts are being examined as part of the impeachment case involving allegations that Duterte misused confidential funds. The proceedings have focused in part on whether the documents submitted to account for the expenditures were legitimate and supported by identifiable recipients.
