House prosecutors on Monday disclosed that most of the names appearing in acknowledgment receipts for the Office of the Vice President's (OVP) confidential funds had no corresponding records with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), but stopped short of declaring them fictitious.

During a press briefing after the 11th day of Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment trial, House Prosecutor Rep. Joel Chua said the names had already been submitted to the PSA during the House Committee on Good Government's investigation in the 19th Congress.

"Halos 70 or 80 percent ng mga pangalan na sinubmit o ginamit dito sa acknowledgement receipt... lahat po ay wala pong petsa ng kapanganakan, wala rin petsa ng kamatayan. So lumalabas sila ay hindi nag-eexist na tao," Chua said.

However, when asked if the individuals could already be considered fictitious, Chua said it was still too early to make that conclusion, suggesting that the names could have been used as pseudonyms for intelligence operations.

"Well, hindi pa natin masasabi. Puwede nating sabihin ginamit silang pseudonym. Pero ang susunod na tanong dyan, sino yung totoong tao?" he said.

House Prosecutor Rep. Zia Adiong emphasized that while the government's joint circular allows the use of pseudonyms to protect the identities of informants or intelligence assets, the Commission on Audit (COA) should still be informed of their real identities.

"Even if gagamit kayo ng pseudonym to protect the identity of your informant or your asset, ang COA, dapat alam nila yung tunay na pangalan," Adiong said.

He added that confidential fund transactions require strict compliance with COA's Joint Circular, including documents proving that the recipients of the funds are real individuals, even if pseudonyms are used in public records to safeguard their identities.