The Liberal Party and Akbayan party-list reminded Sen. Robin Padilla that the country’s heroes and historic leaders used aliases to battle tyranny and fight for the country’s freedom, not to receive confidential funds or evade accountability.
This was after Padilla brought up the use of aliases amid questions about the unusual names of the recipients of Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds, which she has been accused of misusing in the impeachment case against her.
Padilla said aliases are important in times of war. Among the names he mentioned was Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., who used the name Marcial Bonifacio when he flew back to the Philippines from exile.
This prompted Sen. Bam Aquino, his nephew, to clarify that while his uncle used an alias, he never had confidential funds.
The LP said there was no issue with the heroes’ use of aliases or pseudonyms since they were fighting for a good cause.
“Marami sa kanila ay gumamit ng mga pseudonym habang nagsusulat, kumikilos, at nakikipaglaban para sa kalayaan at kasarinlan ng bayan,” it said.
It said they didn’t resort to aliases to receive confidential funds or evade accountability.
“Ang mga bayani ay gumamit ng mga alyas habang nakikipaglaban para sa bayan. Hindi para magtago sa pananagutan,” it said.
The Akbayan partylist also rejected Padilla’s seeming attempt to explain the confidential fund recipients’ unusual names as aliases.
“Bonifacio, Ninoy, et al. used aliases to fight tyranny. Sara’s people used aliases to exploit taxpayers’ money and evade accountability,” Akbayan said.
Private prosecutor Mae Divinagracia pointed out that the use of aliases was not an issue in Duterte’s impeachment because the prosecution did not bring it up, and neither did the defense.
Divinagracia also pointed out that the circumstances were different when the heroes used aliases, since the country was at war.
When Padilla cited the NPA, Divinagracia pointed out that war is different from an internal conflict.