Findings on Pidal signatures contested

A comedy of errors.

This was how a handwriting expert who "volunteered" his opinion to the camp of opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson described the findings of the Philippine National Police (PNP) regarding differences in the signatures of "Jose Pidal" and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.

Segundo Tabayoyong, former chief of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Questioned Documents Division, presented his own analysis of the PNP findings yesterday at a press conference at the Solid Mills building in Makati City, the office of Lacson’s camp.

According to Tabayoyong, there was "technically no basis of comparison" between Mr. Arroyo’s signature and the signature of Jose Pidal, "thus, no conclusion can be made thereon."

Tabayoyong said the PNP violated a fundamental rule in comparison when it erroneously interpreted the "M" in the First Gentleman’s signature as "o-s-e" small letter patterns and, therefore, mistakenly compared the two signatures.

"It was like comparing cars to trucks," he said. "It was a very serious error on the part of the examiner. I wanted everybody to see that ‘o-s-e’ is being compared to an ‘M,’" he said.

As this developed, Lacson’s sister, Union Bank Imus, Cavite branch marketing manager Christina Lacson-Diaz surfaced yesterday to deny that she was the source of the bank records obtained by the senator linking the First Gentleman to money laundering activities.

In television interviews, Diaz said she has no access to the depositors’ records at UnionBank because the nature of her job entails field work.

She also does not have a computer in her office. "I don’t have any access to computers because, in the first place, I don’t have my own computer."

She is convinced that Eugenio Mahusay Jr., Lacson’s erstwhile star witness, had provided the bank documents Lacson has been showing the Senate. — With Ann Corvera and Jose Rodel Clapano