Use of Alias

Someone asked me, "I have a friend who...

came to the Philippines with his Chinese parents in the 60s. He has been using Ching Hx Px, the legal name in his naturalization, or Cheng Hx Px or BoyChing or Boy Cheng alternately in his other legal documents and in the properties that he has accumulated. What is his remedy now? 

My answer is he should file a petition in court to create an alias. Under R.A. 6085 http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1969/ra_6085_1969.html, a person can add one alias for which he may be known:

"Sec. 2. Any person desiring to use an alias shall apply for authority therefor in proceedings like those legally provided to obtain judicial authority for a change of name, and no person shall be allowed to secure such judicial authority for more than one alias. The petition for an alias shall set forth the person's baptismal and family name and the name recorded in the civil registry, if different, his immigrant's name, if an alien, and his pseudonym, if he has such names other than his original or real name, specifying the reason or reasons for the use of the desired alias. The judicial authority for the use of alias the Christian name and the alien immigrant's name shall be recorded in the proper local civil registry, and no person shall use any name or names other, than his original or real name unless the same is or are duly recorded in the proper local civil registry."




To use an alias without legal authority will make him subject to criminal prosecution like Jose Velarde, with penalty of imprisonment of one to five years. 


In this case, the person actual has only 2 names, his legal name of Ching Hx Px and his alias of Boy Ching. Once granted, he can cite as his legal name "Ching Hx Px alias Boy Ching".   That Ching and Cheng are used interchangeably maybe explained depending on whether one is pronouncing in Fookien or Mandarin. The remedy there is to file an affidavit as a clerical error and then have the legal titles change to one spelling only while the person is alive.

If he doesn't go thru this alias change now, all the properties under other names will not be transferred to his heirs once he passes away. The Register of Deeds will treat as different persons those with different names and spelling.