The entirety of the supposedly viral video "Ang Totoong Narco List - Episode 1" rests on one piece of evidence: the signatures at the end of the alleged "TARA" document that details the payoffs to presidential son and former Davao City vice-mayor Pulong Duterte.
An examination of the signature area of the document, however, suggest that the document is fake.
Let's discuss each of For the Motherland - Sass Rogando Sasot's and Thinking Pinoy's observations one by one.
[1] TWO SIGNATURES ARE MIRROR IMAGES
Two of the signatures are identical if one is flipped horizontally. In short, whoever owns those signatures must not only know mirror-writing (writing in both directions, left-to-right and right-to-left), but PERFECT mirror-writing.
While there are people who know how to mirror-write (e.g. the Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci), isn't it absurd for someone to sign a document not only in the reverse direction, but twice on the same page?
The signature (the one to the left) is actually that of Radjah Buayan, Maguindanao mayor Datu Zamzamin Ampatuan, who is NOT A MIRROR-WRITER.
[2] SIGNATURE UNDER BORDER OF EXCEL ROW
It appears that the bottom part of the top-right signature (the loopy signature) fades at three places where it crosses the excel row.
Unless the document's contents were embossed (why bother?) so that the embossed letters can interrupt ink delivery from the pen's tip, the signature's strokes should have been continous.
The signatures appear to be placed BEFORE the document's text was printed, which is absurd. Hence, it's likely that the signatures are mere image files that were inserted to the document, albeit in the wrong order.
[3] TRUNCATED L'S
The letter "L" in the two mirror-image signatures were both truncated as soon as the strokes hit the excel row. This is odd for the same reason as [2].
This further reinforces suspicion in [2[, i.e. that the signatures are mere image files that were inserted to the document, albeit in the wrong order.
[4] WHITE HORIZONTAL BLANK LINES SPLIT SIGNATURES
Both mirror-image signatures have white horizontal blank lines that suggests either:
(a) a flaw on the paper material, or
(b) that the signatures were written not by hand, but by an inkjet printer that's low on ink.
However, the top part of the signature at the bottom-left (i.e. that short signature containing a tall stroke) intersects with one of the white horizontal blank lines without any noticeable interruption in the stroke, making (a) unlikely.
That is, the signatures seem to have been printed by a (crappy) printer, not by a hand.
[5] STROKES ON ALL SIGNATURES SHOW HORIZONTAL LINE PATTERNS
Again, this reinforces suspicion that the signatures were printed by an inkjet printer, i.e. a printer that sprays ink in parallel horizontal lines, starting from from left to right.
[6] HAND-WRITTEN PARTS ARE MORE PIXELLATED THAN DOCUMENT TEXT
For example, a close look at the supposed hand-written numbers show uneven hues in almost every stroke.
This seems to be inconsistent with ballpoint pens because they deliver ink pretty evenly, so that the darkened areas within the strokes should get progressively darker as we get nearer the stroke's center.
Moreover, the pixellation in the signatures is far worse than the pixellation in the document text, which should not be case. A signature, if really hand-written, should have greater or equal resolution than the document text.
Yes, the signatures seem to be written by a crappy printer that's low on ink.
[7] A'S PEAKS JUT OUT OF EXCEL ROW'S TOP BORDER WHILE REST OF LETTER'S BODY IS BELOW IT
The A's in the mirror-image signatures have missing parts as the peak of each A is above the excel row, while the rest of the "A" is below the row.
This is odd because the top-right signature managed to cross the top of the excel row, even if it used a much lighter stroke. Surely, if such a light stroke can pass through the row, a stroke as heavy as the one used in the mirror-image signatures will be able to accomplish the same.
Again, this reinforces the observation in [2].
[8] MANAGED TO SCAN ENTIRE SIGNATURE AT LEFT BUT TRUNCATED THE SIGNATURE AT THE RIGHT
The bottom-left signature was scanned fully but the lower part of the bottom-middle signature was cut off, despite the signature being written higher on the page.
Again, it's a terrible forgery.
CONCLUSION
These eight observations, made with lots of help from For the Motherland - Sass Rogando Sasot, suggest that this is not an authentically signed document, but a terrible attempt at forgery.
The signatures, the features upon which the legitimacy of the exposé rests, are but simple copy-pasted images likely sourced from low-resolution screenshots of another unrelated document.
The only acceptable alibi for this amateur attempt at forgery is if a low-resolution scanner was used. However, judging from the excellent lighting of part showing the supposed whistleblower "Bikoy", I highly doubt that the video's creator would scrimp on imaging hardware.
In short, it would be pretty tough for anyone with even a glint of familiarity with Microsoft Paint to believe that a person who can afford to buy expensive video equipment cannot buy a cheap 2500-peso scanner that can easily scan at photo-quality 300 dpi (dots per inch).
That is, this exposé is nothing but a bad photoshop job.
REMAINING WORKAROUND
The remaining workaround would be for the video creator to produce the original documents, something that is unlikely to happen within the next couple of months (the whistleblower's identity is concealed and no one has claimed to be the owner of the said video).
That is, even if an original document does exist, it will appear only AFTER the May 13 elections.
That is, this is nothing but a really lame demolition job against the Duterte Administration and by extension, all administration-aligned candidates.
Sass Rogando Sasot and RJ Nieto strongly advice the black propagandist behind this video to hire a better graphic designer to even stand a chance at making a significant number people believe this crap.
For more information, watch "FACT CHECK: 'ANG TOTOONG NARCOLIST - EPISODE 1'" at:
https://www.facebook.com/TheThinkingPinoy/videos/319963588690885
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