Maslog admits brief release from NBI facility, court orders probe
Mary Ann Maslog aka Jesica Francisco answers questions from the Senate committee on public inquiry in this file photo taken on October 8, 2024.
INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — Mary Ann Maslog, one of the accused in the controversial textbook scam in 1998, revealed that she was released by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) from its facility in Muntinlupa City in early January.
Maslog made the revelation when she was asked by the Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Geraldine Faith Econg if the reports about her release were true.
The former answered in the affirmative but revealed that she was only out of the facility for about two hours. She also said she could no longer remember the date she briefly left the NBI facility.
Maslog further narrated that her “release order” was approved around 5 to 6 p.m. She then signed a logbook and left the facility around 8 p.m.
“I went home took a shower went to the hospital to visit my husband, then someone called they said I was a fugitive,” she narrated during her case’s promulgation on Tuesday, saying that this call prompted her to return to the NBI.
Article continues after this advertisementFor her part, the anti-graft court’s Second Division clerk of court Anna Marie Crespillo revealed that she received a call from the NBI saying that they are trying to “verify” the authenticity of the said order and that Maslog had already been released.
Article continues after this advertisementBut Crespillo said the statement from NBI Security Management Section (SMS) chief Roel Jovenir the following day changed. Citing Jovenir, Crespillo said that Maslog was never released from the facility.
READ: 1998 textbook scam suspect Maslog convicted of graft
On the other hand, Econg revealed the signatures, purportedly by the Sandiganbayan Second Division justices, were “fake.” She likewise referred Maslog’s release to the Office of the Ombudsman for investigation.
Later during the hearing, the anti-graft court convicted Maslog of one count of graft and sentenced her to a maximum prison term of 10 years.
Maslog, along with Emilia Aranas and Ernesto Guiang of the education department (formerly known as the Department of Education, Culture and Sports), was implicated in a P24-million graft case in 1998.
