PHILIPPINE NEWS SERVICE — SENATOR Jamby Madrigal, fighting for the fortune left by her late billionaire aunt, has petitioned a Makati court to order the National Bureau of Investigation to examine her will on suspicion that relatives had forged the document.
In a motion filed Friday before presiding Judge Oscar Pimentel, Madrigal also asked the court to suspend its Sept. 20, 2006 ruling that the will of Consuelo ‘‘Chito’’ Madrigal-Collantes was valid and genuine.
Pending the results of an examination of the document, Madrigal asked the court to suspend the will’s execution.
Madrigal said NBI experts would be able to prove the signature on the will did not belong to Collantes, and was different from that affixed to another document, the Verification and Certification of Non-Forum Shopping.
‘‘In other words, these two documents which were supposedly signed on the same day appear to contain two sets of signatures belonging to two different individuals. Of these two sets of signatures, only one belongs to the deceased Consuelo ‘‘Chito’’ Madrigal-Collantes,’’ Madrigal said in her motion.
Madrigal’s lawyer, Ernesto Francisco Jr., said the NBI test results would be used to support the senator’s petition to intervene in the case and stop the distribution of her aunt’s properties to the named heirs.
Madrigal also wants the NBI to examine other documents including cashed personal checks.
The court said it would rule on the motion in the next scheduled hearing on Friday.
In the hearing on May 16, Madrigal said the will submitted to the court for probate by her aunt’s lawyers was not the original will that her philanthropist- aunt had executed.
She accused her sister Susana and cousin Gizela Gonzales-Montinola, two of the named heirs in Collantes’ will, of being behind the alleged forgery.
“The will we’re disputing is not the original will of my aunt. These are not her wishes,” she said.
Madrigal said her aunt had promised to give her wealth to the charitable foundation that she established in 1997.
Collantes, 88, died on March 24 in her North Forbes Park residence in Makati. She had no children with her husband, former foreign affairs undersecretary Manuel Collantes.
Collantes left her fortune to her widower, Madrigal’s elder sister Susana, a grandchild, Vicente Gustav Warns, and a niece, Gizela Gonzales-Montinola.