Mike A not Jose Pidal — NBI

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) handwriting experts said yesterday that First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo was not the one who signed the bank documents under the name of "Jose Pidal."

"It is probable that the questioned signature of Jose Pidal and the standard/sample signature of Jose Miguel Arroyo were not written by one and the same person," said handwriting expert Eliodoro Constantino, chief of the NBI Questioned Documents Division.

The NBI announced its findings five days after graphologists from the Philippine National Police (PNP) released the same conclusions.

Constantino said comparative examination and analysis of specimens under magnification revealed that there are six critical differences in the signatures that indicate they were not made by the same person.

But Constantino clarified that the findings were only tentative because they did not examine the original Jose Pidal signature which would have shown the "line quality" of the letters.

"We consider this as qualified and tentative opinion subject to the production of the original copy of the questioned signature," said Constantino.

The graphologist said the "Jose" in the Pidal signature was offset and enclosed to the right sidewall while the "Jose" in the Arroyo signature was compressed to the left side.

The initial stroke of the "J" in the Pidal signature pointed downward while the First Gentleman’s "J" was made with an upward stroke. Pidal’s "J" also showed a big upper loop while Mr. Arroyo’s "J" was made with a sudden oval.

Constantino also noted that Mr. Arroyo’s "O" was either closed or slightly open but Pidal’s were wide open. The dots of the "I" also differed in that Mr. Arroyo’s was far from the letter while Pidal’s was close to the letter.

In analyzing the two signatures, Constantino said they used seven samples of the First Gentleman’s signature while they only a copy of the Pidal sample.

The Pidal sample was the same one which Sen. Panfilo Lacson showed to the public in a privileged speech where he accused Mr. Arroyo of laundering money through bank accounts under the name Jose Pidal.

The First Gentleman’s lawyers requested both the PNP and the NBI to analyze the signatures and determine if they were made by the same person.

The PNP announced their findings last Friday as it challenged Lacson, who dismissed the graphologists’ findings, to a second opinion from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Britain’s Scotland Yard.

The police graphologists defended their findings and insisted foreign graphologists will likely arrive at the same conclusion.

The PNP experts noted seven critical differences in the signatures which indicate they were not made by the same person.

Among the differences are the curvature of the oval and height of junction in the connecting stroke in the letter "J," the width of the opening atop the letter "o," the manner of connection of the letter "s" and the manner of the terminal stroke of the letter "e."

The PNP experts said there was "no percentage of error" in their findings that the "Jose Pidal" signature was not written by the First Gentleman.