Manapat, Fornier brothers face raps

Payback time.

Supporters of Fernando Poe Jr. filed a criminal complaint yesterday against two lawyers who sought his disqualification and the chief of the National Archives who vouched for the authenticity of documents questioning Poe’s citizenship.

Lawyers Andresito and Victorino Fornier and Records Management and Archives Office chief Ricardo Manapat were accused of falsifying public documents by Julius Raboca, Eric Miguel Espina, Hendrick Hermida and Aristodes Ruaro, all officers of the FPJ for President Movement.

A separate administrative case was filed against Manapat for "grave misconduct, abuse of authority and dishonesty" for allegedly fabricating documents used by the Forniers in their petition asking the Comelec to disqualify Poe because he was allegedly not a Filipino citizen.

Andresito Fornier yesterday filed a motion asking the full seven-member body to reverse the decision of the Comelec’s first division dismissing their petition for lack of merit.

Three archives employees who earlier accused Manapat of ordering them to produce the documents are expected to file separate criminal charges against their own boss.

Manapat’s lawyer, Mario Jalandoni, said his client welcomed the charges "because it will provide an opportunity for him to clear his name and to prove them as baseless."

"The truth will eventually come out in the end to exonerate him. Moreover, the courts of law will be fair venue not like what happened during the Senate hearing," Jalandoni said, referring to last week’s inquiry on allegations that the documents were fabricated.

Manapat complained that the senators, especially from the opposition, were biased.

Archives employees Emman Llamera, Remmel Talabis and Vicelyn Tarin accused Manapat at the inquiry of ordering them to forge Poe’s birth certificate and the marriage contract of Poe’s father and another woman to make it appear that Poe was born out of wedlock.

Manapat went on "indefinite leave" following the Senate inquiry.

In their petition, the Forniers said Poe should be disqualified from the presidential race because he is not a natural-born Filipino citizen.

They argued that Poe’s parents held foreign citizenship and that he should take the American citizenship of his mother because his parents’ marriage was allegedly bigamous.

The Philippine Constitution stipulates that only natural-born Filipino citizens may seek the presidency.

Manapat testified before a Comelec hearing on the petition that the documents used by the Forniers came from the archives and were authentic.

The Comelec’s first division rejected the disqualification petition for lack of merit. It argued that Poe’s father was a Filipino citizen despite his Spanish heritage and that made the action star a natural-born Filipino citizen.

Whether or not Poe was born out of wedlock was "beside the point," it said in its ruling.

Andresito Fornier disagreed. "Legitimacy is not beside the point. It is the point." They earlier said they will elevate the issue to the Supreme Court if they lose a second time before the Comelec.

Poe’s camp suspects Malacañang was behind the disqualification petition.

Denying the charge, Arroyo administration officials said the petition was probably the work of a "third party" trying to discredit the President.

Sen. John Osmeña alleged former President Fidel Ramos and former National Intelligence Coordinating Agency chief Jose Almonte, a close Ramos associate, may be involved.

Osmeña said that Manapat was an Almonte "hatchet man."

Sen. Edgardo Angara, whose Senate committee on electoral reforms is conducting the inquiry, said he would not summon Ramos and Almonte "if the basis of the investigation will be limited only to the claims of Senator Osmeña."

"We will just let Manapat explain to the Office of the Ombudsman the criminal cases to be filed against him," Angara said. "In the case of the brains, we could hardly track them down so we are closing the investigation."

Opposition senatorial candidate Ernesto Herrera said the Ombudsman and the Civil Service Commission should initiate administrative and criminal sanctions against Manapat.

The Ombudsman may start an investigation even without a complaint, Herrera said.

There is a pending graft case against Manapat with the Ombudsman for allegedly using the facilities of the Philippine Coconut Authority to publish his Smart Files magazine from 1992 to 1996 in which he, ironically, exposed corruption in government.

The case reached the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court in 2000 but it was sent back to the Ombudsman for reinvestigation. — With Jose Rodel Clapano, Jose Aravilla