Marcos: My signature in PDAF docs forged

MANILA, Philippines – Sen Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr denied involvement in the multi-billion-peso pork barrel scam, saying his signature in endorsement letters was forged.

In his first public comments addressing the issue, Marcos released a statement saying that an internal investigation of his office showed his signature and that of his staff was falsified and the documents involved were of “dubious origin.”

Marcos also released copies of the documents with the allegedly falsified signatures.

“In my 9 years as a legislator, both as a congressman and now as a senator, I have steered clear of any controversy. I have always exerted due diligence to ensure that every centavo allotted to my projects is used properly and meaningfully in projects meant for the people,” he said in a statement on Monday, September 9. 

Marcos said his office conducted the investigation after receiving a letter dated September 4, 2013, from Commission on Audit (COA) supervising auditor Magno Oasan. The letter concerned the authenticity of various documents involving the non-government organization National Livelihood Development Corporation (NLDC).

READ: P6-B PDAF misused; 192 solons tagged

The senator said his office submitted the findings of the internal investigation to COA also on Monday “in the hope that it could aid the agency with its audit.”

Marcos said the internal probe revealed the following findings:

• The signature of Marcos which appeared in the NLDC endorsement letter dated March 16, 2012, was falsified.
• The endorsement letter does not appear in the “docket system” implemented in his office beginning January 2011.
• The signature of his chief of staff Ramon Cardenas which appeared in the Memorandum of Agreements (MOAs) to the 4 NGOs were falsified.
• The MOAs are of dubious origin because they were allegedly notarized by a certain “Atty Antonio M. Santos” in Makati City.
• According to the office of the clerk of court in Makati City, Santos was not commissioned by the Regional Trial Court of Makati as notary public for 2011 to 2013.
• The Integrated Bar of the Philippines said the lifetime number of “Atty Antonio M. Santos” belongs to another individual.

Marcos said he purposely kept quiet when the scandal broke out in July. 

“Instead, I instructed my office to conduct an investigation because I wanted to be very sure about what I would say since I didn’t want to misinform nor mislead the public,” Marcos said.

Marcos was named among the senators linked to the scam. The other senators tagged in the controversy were Senators Bong Revilla, Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Gregorio Honasan II, and Edgardo Angara.

Like Marcos, Estrada has said that his signature may have been faked in the documents.

READ: ‘Revilla, Enrile, Estrada signed pork liquidation’

The Senate blue ribbon committee though said the testimony of witnesses in its hearings that the senators signed liquidation reports of the NGOs help establish pin down their colleagues.

Last week, committee chairman Teofisto “TG” Guingona III was not keen on summoning handwriting experts to settle the issue, saying some senators already admitted to COA that the signatures were theirs. – Rappler.com