Sandigan upholds dismissal of coco levy forfeiture cases

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has upheld the dismissal of a forfeiture case against three firms created out of the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF), also known as the coco levy funds, during martial law.

In an eight-page resolution proclaimed last July 31, the court’s Second Division said the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) failed to raise any new meritorious argument in its motion for reconsideration that would warrant the reversal of the May 16, 2023 ruling dismissing the forfeiture case against Coconut Producers Federation Inc. (COCOFED), Coconut Investment Corp. (CIC) and the Cocofed Marketing Corp. (COCOMARK).

The Second Division had earlier granted the three firms’ motion to dismiss the case on the ground of violation of their constitutional right to due process and speedy disposition of cases.

The Second Division noted that it has been more than 30 years since the civil suit was filed by the PCGG in 1987 but the latter has yet to conclude its pretrial works and commence with the trial proper.

In its latest resolution, the Second Division maintained that the PCGG, represented in court by the Office of the Solicitor General, failed to justify the “inordinate delay” in prosecuting the case.

“Concomitantly, plaintiff failed to appear in pre-trial proceedings countless times, the most recent setting for pre-trial was on Nov. 13, 2000, where plaintiff, once again, unjustifiably failed to appear,” the Second Division reiterated.

Associate Justice Arthur Malabaguio penned the resolution with the concurrence of Associate Justices Oscar Herrera Jr. and Edgardo Caldona.

Docketed as Civil Case No. 0033-B, the forfeiture suit covers companies created using the coco levy funds and was one of the eight subdivided coco levy cases filed by the PCGG in 1987, a year after the ouster of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

Named as primary respondent in the cases was the late San Miguel Corp. chairman Danding Cojuangco Jr., an alleged crony of the Marcoses.

The Supreme Court (SC) in 2021, however, junked six of the civil suits against Cojuangco, citing violation of his constitutional right to speedy trial. Cojuangco passed away in July 2020 at the age of 85.

This same SC ruling was cited by COCOFED, CIC and COCOMARK in asking the Second Division to dismiss the civil suit against them.

The Second Division, in its new resolution, found no merit in the PCGG’s insistence the three coco levy firms “were not similarly situated” with Cojuangco.

The Second Division said that even assuming that the SC decision in favor of Cojuangco should be inapplicable in the case of the three coco levy firms, it was still clear that their “constitutional right to due process and speedy disposition of cases were violated.”