Manapat files perjury raps vs three archives employees

Relieved National Archives Director Ricardo Manapat filed perjury charges yesterday against his three subordinates who testified at the Senate hearing last Wednesday that he ordered the forgery of documents related to the disqualification case against presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr.

Manapat also told a news conference that he would file an indefinite leave of absence following the allegations of forgery against him "as a matter of personal honor."

In a 16-page complaint submitted to the Pasay City Prosecutors Office, Manapat said the three National Archives employees — Remmel Talabis, Emman Llamera and Vicelyn Tarin — lied under oath in claiming that he ordered them to forge documents to support the disqualification petition filed against Poe before the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Among the documents that were supposedly forged included Poe’s birth certificate, marriage contract of Poe’s father and a sworn statement of a certain Paulita Gomez alleging a bigamous marriage.

"They falsely stated or testified that the documents and their microfilm copies were generated by them using computers upon my instructions," Manapat said.

He insisted that he merely instructed the three to "enhance the printouts of the microfilm copies."

Manapat claimed one of the employees, whom he refused to identify, suffers from credibility problems since the same person filed a complaint against him before the Office of the President.

But the National Archives official pointed to Talabis in particular as a Poe sympathizer, claiming the employee is "moonlighting as a stunt man" for the actor in his movies.

He emphasized the courts should be the proper venue of the issue as against a Senate hearing.

"At least in court, I can prove my side in a fair trial without anybody dictating me how I should answer," Manapat said.

Manapat said he was surprised by the turn of events when he ended up being the accused during the Senate hearing last Wednesday.

"It was only during the inquiry that I was able to read the charges. I don’t really know their motives. And it’s no good to speculate," he said.

The Senate hearing stemmed from the privileged speech delivered by Sen. Vicente Sotto III claiming Manapat fabricated the documents to support the disqualification of Poe.

During the inquiry, the three archives staffers told the Senate committee headed by Sen. Edgardo Angara that they used pre-World War II birth certificates and marriage contracts, scanned them and changed the pertinent data with the use of computers to make it appear that Poe’s father was married to Gomez.

Manapat complained he was not given sufficient opportunity to defend himself.

"Certainly, it is absurd on my part if I had every intention of preparing falsified documents to enlist the aid of individuals who have already filed cases against me," he said.

Manapat earlier attested before the Comelec last Monday as to the authenticity of the documents stored at the archives — mainly Poe’s birth certificate, the marriage certificates of his parents and that of his father, Allan Fernando Poe and Gomez.

After he attested to the authenticity of the documents, Manapat disclosed yesterday that he has been receiving death threats from unknown groups.

"When I returned from (the Comelec) hearing (last Monday), there were police officers who patrolled around my office," he said.

Manapat admitted that even in the past, his subordinates disliked him for imposing stricter compliance and quality in their work.

He said there were attempts to oust him from office during his first stint between 1996 to 1998.

Manapat, who certified a similar disqualification case against then presidential candidate Alfredo Lim in the 1998 elections, was reinstalled to his position in 2002, a year after the ouster of former President Joseph Estrada.

"Today, many may view me as a most untrustworthy public servant. I am certain, however, that the events in the coming months will prove me right and that I will be vindicated," he said.

And soon enough, Poe himself is facing criminal charges of falsification after a lawyer yesterday accused the movie actor of falsifying his documents in applying for a Philippine passport.

In filing a complaint before the Pasay City Prosecutors Office, lawyer Albert Villaseca claimed Poe used a fake birth certificate in his passport application.

"I am filing this criminal complaint as a private citizen, a concerned voter and as a lawyer," Villaseca said.

He claimed the fonts and characters on Poe’s birth certificate were "suspicious," questioning the quality of the ink used in printing the document.

He said the typing of the document was simply "too clean."

"There are hardly any errors, if at all. Moreover, the typewritten data are perfectly aligned in the blanks of the form, as if the typist took special care not to commit mistakes," he said. – Jose Aravilla