30 years after, cases vs Marcoses still pending

MANILA, Philippines — More than a dozen criminal and civil forfeiture cases filed by the government against the Marcos family remain pending before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan, 30 years since their filing in the late 1980s.

Based on data obtained by The STAR from the Sandiganbayan Judicial Records Division, 16 civil cases were filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) in 1986, 1987 and 1991 against the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, his wife, former first lady and incumbent Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos and several of their cronies.

The civil cases seek the return of ill-gotten wealth allegedly amassed by the Marcos family and their cronies during the martial law regime.

Sandiganbayan records show that nine of these cases have been dismissed in favor of the Marcos family, while seven remain pending.

Among the cases dismissed were the forfeiture of the assets of several companies owned by tycoon Lucio Tan, including Fortune Tobacco Corp., Asia Brewery, Allied Banking Corp., Foremost Farms, Himmel Industries, Grandspan Development Corp., Silangan Holdings, Dominium Realty and Construction Corp. and Shareholdings Inc.

The PCGG sought the transfer of the assets of these companies to the government as they were allegedly acquired through illegal means during Marcos’ presidency. The court dismissed the case due to insufficiency of evidence.

Also dismissed was the P11-billion civil forfeiture case that the PCGG filed against Armando and Alfredo Romualdez, brothers of Mrs. Marcos.

The court said the PCGG failed to prove that the Romualdez brothers’ assets were illegally amassed using their connection with Marcos Sr. during the 20-year martial law regime.

Meanwhile, after more than 30 years, it was only last May that the Sandiganbayan ruled to proceed with a full blown trial of two of the eight civil cases filed by the PCGG and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in connection with the alleged misuse of coco levy funds.

The court ruled to proceed with the trial of Civil Cases Nos. 33-B and 33-D filed by the PCGG-OSG against businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., former senator Juan Ponce Enrile and several other alleged Marcos cronies.

Civil Case No. 33-B refers to the disputed ownership over the Cocofed Marketing Corp. (Cocomark) and the United Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corp. (Cocolife), while Civil Case No. 33-D covers the companies created through the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF), including United Coconut Oil Mills (Unicom) and 16 other mills.

During martial law, coconut farmers were made to contribute to the Coconut Industry Development Fund (CIDF) also known as the coco levy fund for the supposed development of the coconut industry and to give them shares of investments.?The Supreme Court in several rulings said Marcos and his cronies including Cojuangco instead used the funds for personal profit, particularly in the purchase of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and a majority stake in San Miguel Corp. (SMC).