Sen. Robin Padilla cited that “heroes” also used aliases
Senator Robin Padilla argued that using aliases is vital for maintaining secrecy in confidential operations.
Padilla is one of the Duterte allies in the Senate. During Day 19 of Vice President Sara Duterte’s Senate impeachment trial on August 26, 2026, he highlighted a controversial statement about using aliases.
He defended its use of it saying that this is important for the privacy of a certain operation.
The discussion on Wednesday centered around controversial acknowledgment receipts tied to the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) confidential funds, which bore names suspected to be pseudonyms or aliases, such as “Mary Grace Piattos” and “Antonio Pagong”.
Senator Robin Padilla noted that Philippine national heroes back then used aliases, such as “Dimasalang,” “Siling Labuyo,” and “Tikbalang,” when dealing with confidential and dangerous situations during Spanish colonization.
The actor-politician pointed out that true confidential operations inherently require agents to hide their real identities and refrain from signing their actual names.
House prosecution counsel Atty. Mae Divinagracia clarified that while the Anti-Alias Law allows pseudonyms or aliases under very specific circumstances, it is still required to disclose the person’s real name.
The lawmaker asked Atty. Divinagracia if she was aware of the aliases he mentioned used by Philippine heroes. The lawyer said that she’s familiar with some of them.
Then, Padilla pointed out that there was just one traitor who divulged the activities of the Katipunan. “Alam niyo po ba iyon?” Padilla asked the lawyer.
Divinagracia stressed that the situation back then was different because there was a war. With this, Padilla said that there is also a war now against the NPA, whose members also use aliases.
The lawyer pointed out that war is different from internal conflict, but Sen. Robin Padilla insisted that both bring danger to the people.
Balita shared a clip of this on Reddit.
