MANILA, Philippines — Former first lady and outgoing Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos has asked the Sandiganbayan to reject several documentary exhibits presented by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) over a decades-long trial of a civil forfeiture case that seeks to recover about 200 artworks allegedly amassed during her late husband’s dictatorship.
In a 125-page opposition paper filed last month, Mrs. Marcos and her daughter Irene Marcos-Araneta, through their lawyer Maria Frances Marfil, said the court’s Special First Division must deny the admissibility as evidence of several documents offered by the PCGG, including the list of artworks that supposedly remain missing as well the lists of paintings discovered at Goldenberg and Teus mansions in San Miguel, Manila and at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, and those discovered abroad.
The Marcoses said the lists presented by the PCGG were just mere photocopies, without the presentation of the original ones, which the commission supposedly created in the 1980s.
Furthermore, the defense said the lists do not indicate the dates when the artworks were supposedly acquired, making the documents irrelevant in proving that these were acquired during the Marcoses’ incumbencies as public officers.
The Marcoses also objected to the admissibility of the compact disc (CD) containing the photographs and video footage of the supposed ocular inspection of the Goldenberg Mansion, as well as news reports showing the paintings being displayed by Mrs. Marcos herself.
The Marcoses said the persons who took the photos and videos were never presented in court, in violation of the Supreme Court ruling that a competent witness must testify on the authenticity of videos and photographs being presented as evidence.
“No photographer or any other competent witness testified to its exactness and accuracy. Thus, these photographs and videos were not properly presented and authenticated before this Court under the Rules for Electronic Evidence,” the Marcoses’ opposition paper read.
The defendants also objected to the admissibility of photocopies of letters of correspondence in the early 1980s between Mrs. Marcos and her late husband Ferdinand Marcos with American businessmen Armand Hammer and Richard Lynch of Hammer Galleries in New York.
“Respondents deny the authenticity of the said exhibits. No justification was made why the originals could not be presented before the Sandiganbayan,” the Marcos paper read.
It was in December last year when the PCGG, represented by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), was able to finish the presentation of evidence against the Marcoses in connection with a forfeiture case docketed as Civil Case No. 0141 filed in 1991.
Among the items that the PCGG sought to be forfeited in favor of the government were 152 paintings in the US with an estimated value of $11.84 million, 27 paintings and sculptures discovered at the sequestered Metropolitan Museum of Manila with an assessed value of $548,445 and 12 paintings by American artist Anna Mary “Grandma Moses” Robertson said to have been purchased at around $372,000.
Early this year, the OSG informed the Sandiganbayan that three of the paintings covered by Civil Case No. 0141 were sold at auction in New York City in November last year for more than $3 million.
The OSG said the paintings were sold by the auction house Christie’s by virtue of an order from a New York court.
Claimants 1081, a group composed of over 9,000 human rights victims during martial law, and the PCGG are both claimants in a civil case pending before the US Federal Court in New York City which seeks to recover about 200 pieces of paintings and other artworks allegedly purchased using public funds during the 20-year rule of the late dictator Marcos.
The artworks, however, are also subject of a pending forfeiture case at the Sandiganbayan Special First Division.
In 2014, the Special First Division had awarded in favor of the government the jewelry collection of the Marcoses with assessed value of $110,055 to $153,089. The collection was also part of Civil Case No. 0141.
The jewelry were discovered at Malacañang when the Marcos family fled to Hawaii after the 1986 People Power revolt.