Senate starts probe on Poe Sr. ‘forgery’

The Senate begins an inquiry today on allegations that the head of the National Archives "forged" documents to support a petition seeking Fernando Poe Jr.’s disqualification from the May 10 presidential race.

Senate President Franklin Drilon has issued subpoenas summoning director Ricardo Manapat, head of the records management and archives office, and five other archives personnel to testify at the inquiry.

Manapat vouched for the authenticity of the documents during a Commission on Elections (Comelec) hearing Monday on the disqualification petition disputing Poe’s citizenship.

Lawyer Victorino Fornier, who filed the petition, claims Poe is not qualified to run for president because his parents were foreigners.

Only natural-born Filipino citizens may run for president. The Constitution defines "natural-born Filipino citizens" as those who acquired citizenship "from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect their Philippine citizenship."

The documents in the National Archives show that Poe’s mother, Bessie Kelley, was an American and his father, Allan Fernando Poe, was a Spanish citizen as claimed by Fornier, Manapat told the Comelec hearing.

Fornier says Poe should take his mother’s citizenship because he was born out of wedlock. He produced a marriage certificate that showed that Poe Sr. was still married to a Paulita Gomez, who was supposedly a Spanish citizen, when Poe was born.

Under the law, legitimate children should take up the citizenship of the father.

Poe’s camp said the certificate attesting Poe Sr.’s marriage to Gomez was fabricated and that Gomez never existed.

In a privilege speech Monday, Poe ally Sen. Vicente Sotto III accused Manapat of fabricating the documents and called for a Senate inquiry.

The Senate Blue Ribbon committee and the Senate committee on electoral reforms and suffrage will conduct the probe.

In his speech, Sotto said "the only Paulita Gomez we could find is a character straight out of El Filibusterismo" as he held up a copy of the José Rizal novel that helped spark the 1896 Philippine revolution against Spain.

Sotto said his camp has witnesses who can prove that the documents were fabricated.

"Forces are now moving heaven and earth to produce certified true copies of these non-existent documents. How do I know this? Honest and well-meaning public servants, whose consciences cannot bear this malicious deceit are ready to give information on how these falsified documents were manufactured," he said in his speech.

Yesterday, several National Archives staffers told a television interview that Manapat and three of their co-workers falsified documents to support the disqualification petition against Poe.

"He had documents from our stock brought directly to his office," Teresita Ignacio, who heads a division in the archives, said.

They said Manapat also ordered them to sign an affidavit retracting their complaints against him and threatened to fire them if they refused.

"We’re just ordinary employees," Aurora Centeno, an archives officer, said. "He would take us out one by one, he said."

"He does not deserve to head this institution, especially because our institution protects the integrity of documents," union president Ronald Umali said.

At the Comelec hearing Monday, Poe’s lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, insinuated that Manapat was acting on Malacañang’s behest, pointing out that he was appointed to the National Archives by President Arroyo only two months ago. The President appoints the head of the archives.

Poe’s camp accuses the Arroyo administration of masterminding the disqualification petition against the opposition frontrunner.

Yesterday, full-page advertisements turning the tables on Poe’s camp appeared in major newspapers and tabloids.

The advertisement alleged that Poe’s birth certificate was tampered with to show that he is a natural-born Filipino citizen.

It showed a reproduction of the marriage contract between Poe’s father and Gomez to prove that the movie star was an illegitimate child.

Analyzing the print on Poe’s birth certificate, the advertisement claimed that an electric typewriter — which was invented a few years after World War II — was used to fill in the details about Poe’s birth.

It also claimed that a modern etching machine was used to stamp the date on the document because it used a font that was not yet used before World War II.

Poe’s backers accused Malacañang of putting out the advertisement, a charge Palace officials denied. It was not immediately known who paid for the ad.

In a statement, Poe’s party, the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino, branded the advertisement as a "desperate ploy by detractors to resort to trial by publicity in casting doubts over the united opposition bet’s Filipino citizenship after they have failed to wreck the integrity of his birth certificate during the initial hearing by the Comelec on the issue."

It was not clear when the Comelec will rule on the petition. Poe, 64, may ask the Comelec to reconsider if he loses and later make an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel said the Comelec should throw out the petition.

Citing a provision in the Constitution, he said the Supreme Court, "sitting en banc, shall be the sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns and qualifications of the president or vice president, and may promulgate its rules for the purpose."

Drilon disagreed. "The Comelec has authority to resolve pre-proclamation contests. The Supreme Court comes in only when a winner in the presidential elections is proclaimed and his qualifications are questioned."

One of Poe’s lawyers, Sixto Brillantes, said they did not raise the jurisdiction issue during the Comelec hearing because it would only delay the resolution of the disqualification petition

Poe supporters earlier threatened to stage protests if he is disqualified. "The people might rise up. Nobody believes that Poe is not a Filipino. If he is not a Filipino, who else would be a Filipino?" Boots Cadsawan, head of the FPJ for President Movement, said. "It will be up to the Comelec to decide the case but it would be unpopular to disqualify FPJ." — Jess Diaz, Nikko Dizon, Jose Aravilla