SC affirms dismissal PCGG’s P51b ill-gotten wealth case vs. Marcoses, cronies

June 19, 2018

The Supreme Court has affirmed the decision of the Sandiganbayan dismissing the Philippine Commission on Good Governance’s bid to sequester in favor of the government P51-billion in alleged ill-gotten wealth of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., his wife Imelda, and their alleged cronies.

In a 28-page decision penned by Associate Justice Noel Tijam, the SC’s First Division sustained the judgment handed by the anti-graft court dismissing the PCGG’s complaint for reconveyance of the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their cronies for lack of evidence.

Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro  and Mariano del Castillo concurred with the ruling.

The high court sided with the Sandiganbayan’s findings that the "weight of evidence fails to preponderate" in the PCGG's favor when the commission’s evidence is checked against that of the Marcoses and their alleged cronies.

“No error could be attributed to the Sandiganbayan when it dismissed the Republic's complaint for insufficiency of evidence," the SC ruled.

The high court noted that the PCGG failed to present the original copies of the documentary evidence despite knowing where they were located and did not show proof of "diligent efforts" to produce them.

"In sum, absent preponderant evidence to hold otherwise, the Republic failed to prove that the respondents by themselves or in unlawful concert with one another, accumulated or participated in the accumulation of ill-gotten wealth insofar as the specific allegations in the subject complaint are concerned," the SC ruled.

"Neither were the Presidential issuances nor the witnesses' testimonies sufficient to prove the allegations in the Republic's complaint," tribunal said.

The high court agreed with the Sandiganbayan in excluding a large part of the PCGG's documentary evidence for being photocopies and not original copies, making them inadmissible unless shown that the original is unavailable.

On July 24, 1987, the PCGG filed a complaint, accusing the Marcos family through former First Lady Imelda Marcos, former construction magnate Rodolfo Cuenca, his son Roberto, former Philippine National Bank president Panfilo Domingo, former trade minister Roberto Ongpin, former Development Bank of the Philippines officer Don Ferry, and 11 othersof conspiring to engage in "schemes, devices and stratagems" to acquire ill-gotten wealth.

The PCGG accused Cuenca and the Marcoses of conniving to create the Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines (CDCP),  the predecessor of the Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC), in order to obtain ill-gotten wealth.

CDCP allegedly obtained favored public works contracts amounting to billions of pesos from the Department of Public Works which later became the Department of Public Highways (DPWH), and from the National Irrigation Administration, such as the construction of sugar centrals, the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corporation (PASAR), the Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corporation (PHILPHOS), and the Light Railway Transit Project (LRT), among others, under terms and conditions manifestly disadvantageous to the government.

The PCGG also said the CDCP secured loans and financial assistance from  government financial institutions without sufficient collateral, in contravention of banking laws and sound banking practices.

The commission added that Cuenca and the Marcoses also organized the now-sequestered Universal Holding Corporation, a holding company for CDCP, Sta. Ines Melale Forest Products Corp. and Resort Hotels with the participation of other defendants namely  Jose L. Africa, Roberto Cuenca, Manuel Tinio, Mario Alfelor, Rodolfo Munsayac, Arthur Balch, Nora  Vinluan, Ricardo de Leon,

The UHC, according to the PCGG, was controlled by the Marcoses and served as conduits or deposit abroad of illegally obtained funds and property.

In its complaint, the PCGG alleged that the CDCP obtained "favored" public workers contracts worth billions of pesos from the Department of Public Highways, the National Irrigation Administration, the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corporation, the Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corporation, and the Light Railway Transit Project.

In 2010, the Sandiganbayan found the documentary and testimonial evidence presented by the PCGG as insufficient, ruling that executive issuances presented by the PCGG as proof "are not per se illegal" due to the presumption of good faith in the performance of official duty. DMS