Prosecutor drops falsification rap vs Rama

Annabelle Rama. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Quezon City prosecutors’ office has thrown out a complaint against Annabelle Rama for allegedly faking the management contracts of Nadia Montenegro’s two children.

Assistant city prosecutor Diovie Macaraig-Calderon dismissed the falsification charge against Rama for insufficiency of evidence.

The fiscal pointed out that Montenegro’s signatures on the questioned management contracts matched specimens of her signature, showing they were made by one and the same person. The comparison, the fiscal said, was made by a handwriting expert from the National Bureau of Investigation.

“After a careful consideration of the foregoing, the undersigned finds and so holds that there is no probable cause to charge the respondent Rama with the above-mentioned offense,” said the prosecutor’s resolution dated June 18.

Montenegro’s complaint of falsification and use of falsified documents under the Revised Penal Code is just one in a string of cases she filed against the talent manager.

The controversy stemmed from Montenegro’s allegations of child abuse against Rama over the latter’s managing of the showbiz careers of the former’s teenage daughters.

In her complaint, Montenegro said she was surprised to learn from a GMA Films executive in October  2011 that her two younger daughters were covered by a management contract with Rama.

The former actress denied having ever signed any agreement for Rama to manage the movie careers of her children.

For her part, the talent manager maintained that it was Montenegro who asked her to manage her daughters,  and that Montenegro voluntarily signed the contracts for four of her daughters on April 16, 2010.

At Montenegro’s request, the NBI compared her signatures on the originals of the management contracts with her signature on  two checks issued by her and eight specimen signatures.

In the resolution, Macaraig-Calderon noted that the NBI handwriting analysis pointed to “significant similarities in handwriting characteristics and habits” between Montenegro’s specimen signatures and the assailed signatures on the contracts.

“Considering that the NBI has found through the use of scientific methods that the questioned signatures and the specimen signatures were written by one and the same person and there being no evidence submitted by the complainant to support her claim, the undersigned is constrained to dismiss the instant complaint for insufficiency of evidence,” the resolution said.