Sen. Manglona insists ma’s signature not forged

Sen. Paul A. Manglona (Ind-Rota) took the witness stand in Superior Court yesterday and insisted that his mother’s signature in a 1985 deed of gift that made him the owner of a piece of land on Upper Capital Hill was not forged.

Paul Manglona said the 4,181-square-meter land had belonged to him for 33 years by virtue of his mother Bernadita’s deed of gift dated July 11, 1985.

“Everybody knew about. It’s notarized for 33 years,” said the senator in the ongoing bench trial in his lawsuit against his siblings over the disputed property.

The trial was suspended after judge pro tem David A. Wiseman heard attorney Samuel Mok’s motion for judgment for partial findings.

Mok, who is counsel for siblings Priscilla A. Torres and Thomas A. Manglona, made the motion shortly after attorney Mark Scoggins, counsel for Paul Manglona, informed the court that they rest their case after the senator completed his testimony.

Wiseman asked the parties to submit their briefs about the issue no later than May 4, 2018.

Paul Manglona testified that his parents wanted to sell the Upper Capital Hill property 33 years ago and, as he was staying on Saipan at that time, they gave it to him and put it under his name.

He said he sold the property for his parents and he gave them $50,000—“every single penny.”

The senator said the only thing he told his parents that, since the buyer was Japanese, the lease will return to him 40 years later.

Paul Manglona said he told his parents that, if it is okay with them, he is not keeping a penny of the $50,000 but the property would be his 40 years later, if he is still alive.

“They said it’s okay, no problem. I gave them the check,” he said.

In an interview, Paul Manglona said some of his siblings named in his lawsuit were not happy that his father later married a Filipina nurse after their mother died.

“They’re worried that my dad would give away all his property. For me, it’s not about property and money,” he said.

The Manglonas’ father has already passed away.
The senator said he supported his father’s decision to marry, yet some of his siblings did not support that.

“They did not want that; they’re pissed with my Dad. It’s all about jealousy. It’s all about not respecting your father after your mother is gone,” he said.

Paul Manglona said some of his siblings are mad at him and at two of their brothers, Charles and Prudencio, because the three of them supported their father’s marriage.

“This is all about that. I don’t know why those guys are getting pissed. They all know all along that it’s under my name and I leased it to the Japanese. It’s all recorded,” he said.

Paul Manglona said the deed of gift is not forged and their parents and his siblings knew about the deed for 33 years.

He said the defendants’ handwriting expert, Reed Hayes, is not credible and made a wrong analysis of the exemplar signatures of their mother.

Hayes testified on Wednesday that the signature in the deed of gift of land to Paul Manglona does not match his mother’s other signatures.

Paul Manglona said some of his siblings were talking that they were going to sue him over the Upper Capital Hill property so he told his father about it. He said their father told him to let him sign an affidavit on Dec. 10, 2013, indicating the sale of the Upper Capital Hill land for $50,000 and giving the land to Paul Manglona.

On cross examination, Samuel Mok asked if it is true that during that date when the affidavit was supposedly signed, their father was very sick and in the hospital. Paul Manglona said their father was less sick at that time and that he signed it at the Rota hospital.

Mok said their father supposedly signed the affidavit on Rota at 8:40am yet the record showed that he was in the hospital on Saipan at 11:55am that same day.

Paul Manglona said their father was on Rota and was transferred to Saipan, but that he only learned about it in the morning and could not remember the exact time.

“He was walking. He was not dying. He was put in a wheelchair,” the senator said.

He agreed with Mok that their father had cancer and had blood transfusion at that time.

In his lawsuit against his siblings, Paul Manglona asked the court to declare him the owner of the property by virtue of the 1985 deed of gift. Their mother, Bernadita, is already deceased.