Bong signatures forged, says ex-NBI document examiner

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr.’s lawyers claimed to have scored a victory against the prosecution yesterday after a former senior document examiner of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) testified that all of the lawmaker’s signatures in documents related to the so-called pork barrel fund scam were forged.

Lawyer Desiderio Pagui, one of the Supreme Court’s recognized handwriting and document forensics experts in the country, told the Sandiganbayan that the signatures purportedly belonging to Revilla are absolutely and unquestionably forgeries.

Taking the witness stand as the first witness of the defense for the bail hearings, he belied the prosecution’s assertions that the signatures appearing in the PDAF documents belong to Revilla, noting that all the same were fake.

Pagui showed the anti-graft court’s First Division how the signatures could not belong to Revilla and how each one was copied and forged.

Revilla’s camp said such testimony further bolsters the admission of pork barrel fund scam whistle-blower Benhur Luy that he faked PDAF documents and forged the signatures of lawmakers.

Defense lawyers said Pagui’s testimony deals another major blow to the prosecution, who just recently had to contend with the admission of NBI witness Joey Narciso that he had to examine Benhur Luy’s hard disk twice after he had no conclusions during the first examination.

Narciso said it was only allegedly after he was given specific instructions by his superior and the team of prosecutors on how he was supposed to conduct the examination and whose names should be in the report was he able to make findings, while also admitting that his examination of the external hard drive was not thorough.