FM heirs want crony’s assets returned

Lawyers of the Marcos family are demanding the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) return 34 local and foreign corporations and 17.4 million square meters of land assets surrendered to the government by the late self-confessed Marcos crony Jose Yao Campos in 1986.

In a four-page demand letter sent by Attys. Robert Anthony Sison, Efren Vincent Dizon and Charlito Martin Mendoza last Nov. 16, the lawyers, on behalf of their clients whom they said were the heirs of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, gave the government “a period of 10 days to comply.”

In a press briefing yesterday, PCGG chairman Camilo Sabio said the commission had forwarded the matter to the Office of the Solicitor General.

Sabio declined to comment on the demand pending the OSG opinion on the matter.

According to the lawyers, Campos had erred in surrendering the assets to the government more than 20 years ago.

They said that since Campos held the real estate properties and corporations “under a constructive trust in favor of the estate of the former president,” he could not surrender them without the consent of the late president or his heirs.

“Considering that the late president and his family are the beneficial owners of these surrendered corporations, properties and assets, Mr. Campos could not have legally and validly surrendered the same to the PCGG because he was merely an agent of the beneficial owner,” the lawyers said in the letter, which all three signed.

Among the 34 Philippine and foreign corporations listed by the lawyers as among the Marcos assets illegally surrendered by Campos, founder of the Filipino drug giant Unilab, were Independent Realty Corp. and Mid-Pasig Land Development Corp. which together hold title to the 18-hectare Payanig sa Pasig land estimated to be worth between P15 billion to P20 billion.

According to the lawyers, the real property assets of Marcos held in trust by Campos and surrendered to the government included a “total of 197 certificates of title covering a total area of 17,405,984 square meters of land located in Ortigas Boulevard, Pasig City, in Baguio City and in the provinces of Laguna and Cavite, including 120 hectares of seafront located in Mariveles, Bataan registered in the name of Anchor Estate, Inc.”