Pork scam witness admits forging Napoles’ signature

A WITNESS in the pork barrel scam has admitted that she faked the signatures of Janet Lim-Napoles so many times that she lost count of the number of days she committed the forgery.

During her testimony at the bail hearing of former Apec Rep. Edgar Valdez on Monday, Arlene Baltazar said she forged the signatures of Napoles for the Bureau of Internal Revenue tax returns of JLN Corporation as well as the alpha list of employees.

When Baltazar was asked by Napoles’ lawyer Lanee David in the cross examination if the businesswoman ever gave her a writ of authority, Baltazar said the alleged pork barrel mastermind only gave her instructions to sign for her in the documents.

Asked how many times she forged signatures, Baltazar said: “Numerous times, I can’t even estimate.”

Baltazar also admitted that she received less than P500,000 as bookkeeper for JLN Corp.

She said she did not receive commissions as president of a Napoles NGO Tanglaw Para Sa Magsasaka Foundation, for which she used her daughter, son, sister and brother-in-law as incorporators.

Baltazar further testified that the biggest incentive she received while working for Napoles is P100,000 which already included her Christmas bonus.

Napoles faces multiple plunder and graft charges for allegedly masterminding the scheme of using lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to ghost projects for kickbacks. She is now serving life sentence for the illegal detention of principal whistleblower Benhur Luy.

Meanwhile, Valdez is detained for plunder at the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.