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Thursday, January 22, 2004
3 National Archives employees accuse boss of 'forgery'
MANILA -- Three workers of the National Archives on Wednesday revealed they witnessed how the entries on the alleged fake birth certificate of Allan Fernando Poe Sr. and a marriage contract between Poe and Paulita Gomez were forged and fabricated.
But National Archives Director Ricardo Manapat vehemently denied the allegations of the three employees. He described their accusations as "mere lies" and their way of ousting him from office.
In a five-hour Senate investigation on Wednesday on the alleged fake documents used against presidential candidate Poe, Vicelyn Tarin, Emman Llamera and Remmel Talabis said sometime in December, Manapat ordered them to do technical jobs on the computer.
Talabis, a storekeeper in the National Archives, said Manapat ordered him to scan birth records and later asked him to clean the copies by removing the entries and leaving the form blank.
"Pinahanap din ako ni Director Manapat ng katulad na font na ginamit sa 1928 birth record, pero hindi po ako nakakita kaya nag-cut and paste na lang ako mula sa letra ng mga nasabing dokumento (Director Manapat told me to look for a font that was used in the 1928 birth record but I could not find one so I just cut and paste the letters from the document)," Talabis said in his affidavit.
Early this month, according to Talabis, he was again called by Manapat to print a marriage contract and asked him to put a signature for Gomez.
In addition, Llamera said upon orders of Manapat, he put the names of Poe and Gomez on a blank marriage contract and inserted at least three signatures.
"Nakabantay sa tabi ko si Director Manapat habang nagtatrabaho ako, mula umpisa hanggang sa matapos ko ang pinapagawa niya (Director Manapat was beside me while I was working on it - from start to finish)," Llamera added.
On the other hand, Tarin, a records management analyst of the National Archives said on December 30 last year, Manapat handed him two papers with a number of signatures of Poe and Gomez.
She was ordered to scan it and clean it using Adobe Photoshop software.
"Pagkatapos kong scan ang buong papel, krinap (crop) ko iyong pinakamaayos na pirma nina Allan Poe at Paulita Gomez at nilinis sa pamamagitan ng software, Pagkatapos noon, ininsert ko yung dalawang napili kong lagda sa MS Word at I-save sa diskette (After I scanned the paper, I cropped the signatures of Allan Poe and Paulita Gomez and cleaned them using a computer software. After that, I inserted the two signatures that I selected through MS Word and saved in on a diskette)," Tarin said.
According to the three employees, they decided to testify so the public would know the truth behind the alleged fake documents used in the citizenship issue against Fernando Poe Jr.
Liable
Despite the explanations of Manapat, Sen. Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on Constitutional amendments, revisions of codes and laws, said the committee is convinced that Manapat is liable for forgery and falsification of public documents.
The Senate hearing on the citizenship of presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. came after Sen. Vicente Sotto III earlier accused Manapat of fabricating documents against the movie actor in support of a disqualification case filed against the acknowledged King of Philippine Movies.
Lawyer Vicente Fornier earlier filed a disqualification case with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) against Poe Jr. (Ronald Allan Poe in real life) for not being a natural-born Filipino, which is a major qualification for a presidential candidate.
Fornier said the elder Poe is a Spaniard while Kelly is an American national.
Fornier also presented documents that showed that Allan (father of the movie actor) and Gomez were married and the elder Poe's wedding to Bessie Kelly (mother of the Poe Jr.) was not legal, thus making the movie actor an illegitimate child.
Microfilm
Senator Sotto questioned Manapat about the microfilm that allegedly contained the marriage contract of the elder Poe and Gomez.
Manapat insisted through microfilm, the old documents were preserved. He further explained the agency has preserved some birth records and other important documents from 1922 to 1932.
When asked to produce the original document, Manapat said he cannot because "maybe the original documents were destroyed or misplaced but it was preserved in the microfilm already. Termites don't eat microfilm. It can last forever unlike papers."
He presented during a Senate hearing the microfilm reader to show that documents were preserved.
Meanwhile, some senators doubted the testimony of Manapat. Sen. Sergio Osmeņa III said the microfilm presented is questionable.
Sotto, on the other hand, said he will ask Manapat to resign from the post since his credibility as a public official "has been damaged already."
Lawyer Estelito Mendoza, counsel for Poe, said the Senate hearing showed that the disqualification case against the movie actor is without basis and was filed using fabricated documents.
"Tapos na ang boxing (The boxing bout is finished)," said Mendoza in a television interview.
Meanwhile, Sen. Luisa Estrada on Wednesday said Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson is the most likely candidate to replace Poe as the opposition coalition's standard-bearer if the Commission on Elections (Comelec) decides to disqualify the movie actor in the forthcoming May 10 elections.
"In my own opinion, I think Sen. Lacson is the possible candidate to replace FPJ," Estrada said.
But the presidential bid of Lacson suffered another setback as the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino, the political party of former president Joseph Estrada, threw their "full support" to the candidacy of Poe.
Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, one of PMP's senatoriables and included in Poe's list, said Estrada's support for Lacson has "not exactly" waned but the ousted leader is supporting his bosom friend.JPM/Sunnexluzon
(January 22, 2004 issue)
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