The defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte on Monday said the names listed on the receipts for her office’s confidential funds were aliases, telling the Senate impeachment court that the real identities were classified.

Defense lawyer Justin Nicol Gular made the assertion after Senator-Judge Risa Hontiveros asked him to clarify whether the 266 names on acknowledgment receipts submitted to the Senate impeachment court were genuine identities or aliases.

“Are they real names or aliases?” Hontiveros asked in Filipino.

“These are in fact aliases,” Gular replied.

The defense lawyer, however, refused to identify the people behind the aliases, saying the information was classified and that the defense would explain the matter when it presents its evidence.

“I hope you understand, your honor, that in threshing out this matter, having in mind the reminder of the good presiding officer, we will do this at the appropriate time during our presentation of evidence,” Gular said.

“I will veer away from making conclusions of lower facts at the moment,” he added.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) had been asked to verify the names against its civil registry records. It found that 63 percent of the names had no records of birth, marriage, or death.

Hontiveros asked PSA official Marizza Grande, who took the witness stand yesterday, whether the agency considered the people behind the names to be real or nonexistent.

Grande said the PSA could not make that determination because it had not been told the names were aliases.

“Considering that we had no idea if they were aliases, we treated this as a regular request, as registered names,” Grande told the impeachment court.

No record, no proof

The agency did not investigate whether the people behind the names actually existed. It searched its civil registry database and conducted additional verification on selected names, including “Mary Grace Piattos.”

In the case of former Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, who was charged in a POGO case, Grande said the PSA conducted a fact-finding investigation into Guo’s identity because an existing birth registration provided a record that could be examined.

“In the case of Alice Guo, we did an investigation, because the birth had been recorded and registered,” Grande said.

In the case of the confidential fund receipts, there was no comparable investigation because the PSA was asked only to determine whether the names matched civil registry records, she said.

Very slim

Senate President Win Gatchalian asked whether a person could be alive despite having no PSA record of birth, marriage, or death.

Grande said it was possible, particularly because of delayed registration, although she described the likelihood as “very slim” that none of the three major life events had generated a record.

Grande also said negative certifications, which indicate that no corresponding civil registry record was found, are routinely used in court proceedings and government transactions.

The PSA has about 143 million birth records in its database, Grande said. Birth registrations stood at 96.6 percent based on the 2020 Census of Population, while unofficial 2024 figures put coverage at about 97 percent to 97.1 percent.

Grande said gaps in birth registrations were concentrated largely among indigenous peoples, Muslim Filipinos, and residents of geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas. Death registration coverage was lower, at about 84 percent, she said.