The defense of Vice President Sara Duterte on Monday said names listed on receipts for her confidential fund spending were aliases, telling the Senate impeachment court that the identities behind them were classified.

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

“Mga totoong pangalan po ba ang mga iyon o mga aliases po ba iyon?” Hontiveros asked.

“These are in fact aliases, Your Honor,” Gular replied.

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

“But 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 as of 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% had no corresponding record of birth, marriage or death.

Hontiveros asked PSA official Marizza Grande whether the agency considered the people behind those 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 po, ma’am, na we have no idea kung aliases ito, we treated this as regular lang po na request na parang as a registered name po siya,” Grande told the impeachment court.

No record, no proof

Grande said the PSA treated the 266 names as genuine names when it conducted the verification because it had no information that they were aliases.

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.”

Grande said the PSA conducted a fact-finding investigation into Guo’s identity because there was an existing birth registration that could be examined.

“Dun po sa case ni Alice Guo, we did an investigation, ma’am, because the birth has been recorded and registered,” Grande said.

The agency then conducted a fact-finding investigation on the ground, she 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.

Meanwhile, 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” if none of the three major life events had generated a record.

Grande also said PSA negative certifications, which show 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 registration coverage stood at 96.6% based on the 2020 Census of Population, while unofficial 2024 figures put coverage at about 97% to 97.1%.

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