Implement SC ruling, gov’t lawyers urge

Government lawyers pushed yesterday for the "immediate execution" of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that stripped the Marcos family of the ownership of $682 million in Swiss bank deposits of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

In a four-page motion, Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo and his deputies told the high tribunal that with its denial of the Marcos family’s appeal last Nov. 18, then its landmark decision issued last July 15 should be carried out since this has become final and executory.

"The rule is well settled that when a judgment becomes final and executory, it may be executed as a matter of right. That is, it becomes a mandatory or ministerial duty of the court to issue a writ of execution to enforce the judgment," the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) said of the Swiss deposits, which had been forfeited in favor of the government.

The denial of the Marcoses’ appeal paves the way for the enforcement of the ruling since court rules now prohibit the filing of a second motion for reconsideration to put an end to litigation that can take years — sometimes decades — to resolve. Appealing the ruling twice is no longer allowed.

The Swiss deposits are now held in an escrow account in the Philippine National Bank (PNB), which has invested the amount in various foreign banks, including those in Hong Kong and Singapore.

"The amount adjudicated in favor of the Republic should provide the much-needed relief to the huge budgetary deficit and to fund the land reform program of our government, including the equitable compensation of the victims of human rights abuses during the Marcos regime," the OSG said.

The Supreme Court had upheld an earlier ruling by the Sandiganbayan that said Marcos could not have legally acquired the money based on the declared income of the dictator and his widow, former first lady Imelda Marcos.

With the Marcoses’ failure to justify the source of the funds, the Sandiganbayan declared that the Swiss deposits form part of the Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth.

The Supreme Court also junked the "global freeze order" on the Marcos assets issued Sept. 2 by Hawaii District Court Judge Manuel Real, saying the ruling was a "transgression not only of the principle of territoriality in public international law but also of the jurisdiction of this Court recognized by the parties-in-interest and the Swiss government itself."

Meanwhile, the Marcoses filed a second appeal seeking to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision on the Swiss deposits.

In a 34-page motion for reconsideration, the Marcoses said the Supreme Court was wrong in saying in its Nov. 18 resolution that they did not raise any new arguments in asking the high tribunal to reverse its July 15 ruling.

The Marcos family said the Swiss funds should remain in escrow at the PNB since the Swiss Federal Supreme Court’s condition of a final criminal conviction for the release of the Swiss deposits was not fulfilled.

The Swiss tribunal had ruled that it should be first established that the money "is owned by the Marcoses and that it is ill-gotten; provided, that the final verdict was rendered after full and fair trial or strict observance of due process and presumption of innocence," they said.

The Marcoses also cited that the acquittal of the former first lady from the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by a United States court in 1990 should serve as a bar to the forfeiture case.