Danding asks Sandigan to reconsider forfeiture

Business tycoon Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr. asked the Sandiganbayan yesterday to reconsider its decision declaring as ill-gotten two blocks of shares in the Manila Bulletin, including 46,626 shares under his name.

In a 55-page motion for reconsideration submitted to the anti-graft court’s fourth division, Cojuangco maintained that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) failed to substantiate its allegations that the stocks in question were "ill-gotten."

In its decision handed down last March 14, the Sandiganbayan ruled that the PCGG legally owned the 46,626 shares, as well as 90,877 other shares in the newspaper transferred by Cojuangco and two other stockholders to the H.M. Holdings Management Inc. in 1983.

The government specifically created the PCGG to recover alleged ill-gotten wealth of the family and cronies of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The decision, penned by Associate Justice Rodolfo Pallatao, cleared another block consisting of 154,472 shares sold by the late Brig. Gen. Hans Menzi to incumbent Manila Bulletin chairman Dr. Emilio Yap’s US Automotive Co. Inc.

The same ruling declared that Yap’s additional 2,617 shares were also legally acquired.

In his motion, Cojuangco argued that the burden of proof is with the PCGG to show that the questioned shares were part of the alleged "ill-gotten wealth" of the Marcos couple.

Cojuangco also asserted that he need not prove his claim that he held the shares upon the request, and as a nominee, of Menzi.

The Sandiganbayan decision largely relied on a sworn statement executed on Oct. 9, 1986 by the late Mariano Quimson Jr., former president of the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp., who declared that the three nominees of Marcos and the shares totaling 198,052 were issued to Cojuangco, Jose Campos and Cesar Zalamea following infusion of new money released by Marcos.

Cojuangco dismissed Quimson’s testimony as "hearsay and without probative value" since he (Quimson) was not presented as a witness in the trial of the case.

The court upheld Cojuangco’s contention that an affidavit is deemed hearsay unless the affiant is presented in court to affirm his statements, and the adverse party is given the opportunity to cross-examine him.

Cojuangco pointed out that the PCGG failed to prove that the shares belonged to the government, or were acquired using government funds, or that Marcos acquired the assets by "taking advantage of his public office and/or used his power, authority, influence, connections or relationship."

The petitioner added that the PCGG could not be declared as the rightful owner of the contested shares by virtue of the agency’s rules and regulations.

"In the present case, there is no doubt that all the shares of stock in Bulletin Publishing Corp. were acquired by the late Hans Menzi from Carson Taylor. This Honorable Court acknowledged this in its decision of March 14, 2002," Cojuangco said.