When may aliases be used?

One issue that arose during the impeachment of former President Estrada was whether or not there was a law that prohibited a bank account in the name of "Jose Velarde". As you know, the real owner of this account was either former President Estrada or Jaime Dichaves, depending on which version of the story is to be believed. Other fictitious accounts are now in the limelight, those of Jose Pidal. Mr. Ignacio Arroyo has claimed that his lawyers advised him that no law was violated when he allegedly opened fictitious accounts in the name of Jose Pidal. Mr. Arroyo explained that he opened the Jose Pidal accounts before the effective date of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

Even before the AMLA took effect in 2001, the use of fictitious accounts had been banned by Circular No. 251 of the Bangko Sentral which took effect in 2000. The Circular prohibited banks from allowing the opening of accounts using fictitious names. The Circular was issued in reaction to media reports that the Philippines had been named by the Paris-based Anti-Money Laundering Task Force as one of the money laundering capitals of the world, because of the absence of effective legislation to combat money laundering. What was most embarrassing was that the Philippines was the only Asian country on the list.

Like the Jose Velarde account, the Jose Pidal accounts were opened before BSP Circular No. 251 was issued. Did this mean there was no law or regulation before Circular No. 251, that prohibited the opening of bank accounts in a name different from the one with which one was registered at birth, or in such substitute name that had been authorized by a competent court after a petition for change of name? During the impeachment of former President Estrada, a ranking government officials expressed the view that no law existed that prohibited fictitious accounts. In reaction, I wrote in Point of Law that there, indeed, was such a law.

Law on use of aliases. On Nov. 7, 1936, the National Assembly enacted Commonwealth Act No. 142 entitled "An Act to Regulate the Use of Aliases." The Act prohibits the use of aliases unless three conditions are complied with: First, an alias cannot be used "except as a pseudonym solely for literary, cinema, television or other entertainment purposes"; second, the alias must be used solely for those purposes; and third, the use of a pseudonym is a normally accepted practice.

It is not enough that a pseudonym is used for literary, cinema, television or other entertainment purposes. The alias must be used solely for those purposes. The use of "solely" meant that authors who use a pen name or nom de guerre, such as Nick Joaquin (who uses the pen name "Quijano de Manila"), could use their pen name only for literary purposes, and no other. In like manner, actors, who are allowed by law to use screen names, may use their screen names only for cinema, television or other entertainment purposes. Actors cannot do so for the purpose of running for public office, unless the use of their screen name had been approved by a competent court. An irreverent friend of mine, however, claims that politics is the same as entertainment purposes.

Use of aliases for bank accounts. Mr. Arroyo stated that the use of an alias in opening bank accounts had been a normally accepted practice at the time. His argument implied that the opening of an account in the name of an alias did not violate the law against the uses of aliases. The representative of BPI who testified during the second hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee did not seem to think that the use of an alias was a normally accepted practice. Although she had been with BPI since the 70’s, she testified that she had never witnessed the opening of an account using a fictitious name.

Even assuming the use of a fictitious name was in fact a normally accepted practice, this did not justify the use of an alias under the circumstances. For the phrase "where the use of a pseudonym is a normally accepted practice" is not an additional exception to the law. Rather, the phrase merely imposes a condition for the use of "a pseudonym solely for literary, cinema, television or other entertainment purposes and in athletic events." The exceptions during which an alias may lawfully be used, are further limited to cases "where the use of a pseudonym is a normally accepted practice".

Meaning of "normally accepted practice". To illustrate, although the law allows an athlete to use an alias in athletic events, an athlete may do so only if using an alias is a normally accepted practice in his particular sport. Thus, a local professional basketball player cannot use an alias in his sport, because the use of an alias is not a normally practice in basketball.

Upon the other hand, pelotaris can lawfully use an alias in jai-alai, as in fact many jai-alai players used names not their own, such as "Filipino" and "Lopez". The pelotaris whom I named dates me. They were two of the pelotaris who played during days long gone, when my classmates used to visit the now demolished jai-alai fronton on Taft Ave. after night classes at the Ateneo’s old Padre Faura law school campus.

I named Lopez because he was my classmate in high school. His real name was Deannis Gorres, a varsity basketball player of the Ateneo and the son of the "G" in SGV & Co. The reason why Filipino and Lopez could use aliases, was because the use of aliases in jai-alai had long been the normally accepted practice.

To my mind, the Anti-Alias law was sufficiently broad in scope as to prohibit the opening of a bank account under a fictitious name. For the opening of a bank account did not fall within any of the accepted exceptions to the prohibition against the use of aliases. The banks that allowed the opening of fictitious accounts before BSP Circular No. 251 took effect, however, did not violate the law against the use of aliases. For a breach of this law can be committed only by the person who uses an alias without complying with the conditions for its lawful use.

(The author is a senior partner of Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices or ACCRALAW. He may be contacted at tel. 830-8000 or e-mailed at [email protected])