Ask Napoles to spell “forty”

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS

RETIRED Marine Colonel Ariel Querubin remembers that when Jenny Napoles, the pork barrel queen who is now a fugitive, wrote a check for forty thousand pesos for the interest of the money she owed his late first wife, Loretta (Cercenia), she didn’t know how to spell the word “forty.”

“Ano nga ang spelling ng forty (How is forty spelled?),” Querubin recalled Napoles asking him.

He spelled out F-O-R-T-Y to her.

“She probably was not sure if she would spell it with a “u” as in “four”, Querubin, a Medal of Valor Awardee, said.

Napoles’ being unsure how to spell “forty” (which shows that you need not be good in spelling to amass billions of money) is just a sidelight of Querubin’s unpleasant memory of Napoles, who borrowed money from his military doctor-wife, with a promise to pay it with a five percent interest, for an investment she was making in a shipyard business.

The transaction turned out to be traumatic for Querubin because after a day after a stressful meeting of his wife with Napoles on Aug. 18, 1994, the former died of “unexplained primary pulmonary hypertension.”

Querubin said the money lent by his wife came from their savings and that of relatives. Another doctor-friend also lent a substantial amount to Napoles.

The Middle- East based military doctor, who asked not to be named, said he, the Querubins and the Napoleses used to be good friends. (They were all involved in the 1989 coup.) Faye, Querubin’s only daughter, is Napoles’ god-daughter. Jeane, the fashionista Napoles daughter, is the god-daughter of Querubin and the military doctor.

Querubin said when Lorrie gave the money Napoles was borrowing, the latter issued post-dated checks for the interest. That’s when she asked about the spelling of “forty.”The first few checks were good, Querubin said. But later on the post-dated checks bounced.

Lorrie and his doctor-friend were later referred to another military wife, who was the one in the shipyard business and was the one who used the money Napoles got from the two military doctors.

One day, when they were trying to collect with the military wife, Napoles arrived. It was not a very pleasant meeting with Lorrie calling up Querubin and gave the phone to Napoles.

Querubin remembers Napoles being high-strung when they were talking on the phone and he told her not to raise her voice.

The next day Lorrie was dead.

Querubin said on the first night of Lorrie’s wake, Napoles came with a priest and full payment for what she owed Lorrie in dollars.

But the other military doctor was not as lucky. The last P50,000 check issued her by Napoles bounced.

The doctor said napoles issued that check in bad faith because when it was deposited, the bank said Napoles account had been “closed.” He said he was never paid in full.

“ When this pork barrel controversy came out , I asked my wife to look for that returned check.” he said.

When that returned check is found, it could be evidence against Napoles. But that probably is the least of her concern. She and her brother, Reynald “Jojo” Lim, are currently being hunted by the authorities in connection with the charge of illegal detention of Benhur Luy, former business associate of Napoles, who is now the star whistleblower in the P10 billion pork barrel scam.

De Lima admits they face difficulty in arresting Napoles because she is “well-connected.”

Those connections , who are rumored to be in high places, will make sure that she is not arrested.

In the olden times, punishment for an offense comes in the form of 40 lashes. Would Napoles prefer that , however it is spelled, to the situation she is now?