SC junks PCGG's P51-billion suit claim vs Marcoses, cronies

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court junked the appeal of the Presidential Commission on Good Government to claim P51 billion from the estate of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies.

Acting on the Petition for Review filed by the PCGG, the SC’s First Division upheld the Sandiganbayan’s decision dated Aug. 25, 2010 that dismissed PCGG’s motion for reconsideration due to “insufficiency of evidence.” The 28-page decision was penned by Associate Justice Noel Tijam.

The PCGG is the agency created specifically to go after the ill-gotten wealth amassed during the dictatorship of Marcos and its cronies. Since its establishment in 1986, it has recovered at least P170 billion from the Marcoses and their cronies.

The PCGG filed a complaint before the anti-graft court for the “reconveyance, reversion, accounting, restitution and damages” from the Marcos estate. Named as respondents in the case are former First Lady Imelda Marcos, businessman Roberto Cuenca, former Trade and Industry Minister Roberto Ongpin, former Philippine National Bank president Panfilo Domingo, former Development Bank of the Philippines vice chairman Don Ferry and 11 others.

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Cuenca is the former president of Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines, that is said to have been used to funnel ill-gotten wealth.

The PCGG sought to reverse the Sandiganbayan ruling which held that the agency’s testimonial evidence was “insufficient to establish that respondents engaged in ‘schemes, devices or stategems’ to acquire ill-gotten wealth assets.”

The agency asserted that the anti-graft court should not have excluded the documentary evidence—executive issuances, court decisions and resolutions, and photocopies of reports, sworn statements and board resolutions— that it presented “in ground of best evidence rule.”

The agency seeks to recover from the respondents alleged ill-gotten wealth “which they acquired in unlawful concert with one another, in breach of trust, and with grave abuse of right and power.”

But the SC, in weighing in on the case, upheld the Sandiganbayan ruling. It held that while the anti-graft court took judicial notice of the executive issuances and decisions, the photocopies cannot be admitted as evidence.

The PCGG argued that the original copies are being kept at the Central Bank vault, but the SC noted that the PCGG failed to present the original documents. “Neither was there any showing that the Republic exerted diligent efforts to produce the original,” the decision reads.

“Juxtaposing the specific allegations in the complaint with the Republic’s documentary and testimonial evidence and as against the respondents’ documentary and testimonial evidence showing the dye organization and existence of the CDCP, the Court agrees with the Sandiganbayan that the weight of evidence fails to preponderate in the Republic’s favor,” the SC said.

“The Court finds it opportune to echo its concluding statement in Marcos-Manatoc case if only to emphasize the importance of a well-executed effort on the part of the government to recover ill-gotten wealth and the dire consequences if done improperly, hastily and haphazardly,” the court stressed.

The decision is the latest blow to the PCGG that is facing a bill that seeks its abolishment. The bill has already hurdled the voting at the House of Representatives.

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