Mary Ann Maslog, the primary suspect in the infamous 1998 textbook scam, is back in the spotlight as she faces new charges, despite having allegedly faked her death in 2019.
Initially implicated in a graft case related to the scam, Maslog had been reported dead. However, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) uncovered her alive and well after her arrest for another alleged racket last week.
Maslog was notorious for supposedly delivering a cardboard box containing ₱3 million in bribes to Malacañang in 1999.
She was apprehended in Quezon City on September 25, five years after she faked her demise.
According to the NBI, two individuals filed complaints alleging that Maslog had defrauded them of ₱8 million in an investment scheme, during which she used a false identity.
Operating under the alias “Dr. Jesica Francisco,” she posed as a supplier of water systems and medical supplies for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
One of the complainants recounted how Maslog befriended him in September 2021, convincing him to invest ₱5 million in a BARMM project with a promised return of ₱65 million.
After a year, Maslog issued a manager’s check worth ₱58 million as her share in the investment, but the check bounced.
Upon her arrest, the NBI discovered that Maslog’s fingerprints matched those on a biometric printout from the Bureau of Immigration dating back to 2016.
Further verification revealed that Maslog, also known as Mary Ann Evans Smith and Mary Ann Tupa Maslog-Smith, had outstanding arrest warrants from regional trial courts in Makati and Parañaque City.
NBI Director Jaime Santiago confirmed that they informed the Sandiganbayan of Maslog’s arrest, recommending no bail for her temporary release.
She will remain in NBI custody while awaiting court orders.
The NBI has filed 29 counts of falsification of public documents and violations of the anti-alias law against Maslog at the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office, in addition to charges of estafa and bribery.
Maslog was previously involved in a ₱24-million graft case in 1998, representing Esteem Enterprises, a textbook publishing company, in a scandal that implicated officials from the then Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS).