DOJ clears 5 in Luneta Hotel sale

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has cleared of syndicated estafa a group of businessmen linked to the family of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos in connection with the selling of the historic Luneta Park Hotel in Ermita, Manila in 1973.

Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera reversed the resolution of investigating fiscals, who found probable cause to charge Erlinda Panlilio, Marlo Cristobal, Nicole Morris, Jose Marcel Panlilio and Herminio Valerio, incorporators of Rizal Park Hotel Inc. (RPHI), before a trial court.

The DOJ chief ordered prosecutors handling the case to withdraw the charges filed with the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 21.

Devanadera explained that respondents could not be held liable for selling all their shares of stocks to the complainant, H.E. Heacock Resources Corp. since the law penalizing syndicated estafa (Presidential Decree 1689) was not yet in force at that time and only took effect on April 6, 1980.

“Therefore, back in September 1973, the solicitation of money contributions of stockholders which may later be misappropriated by the members of the corporation was not yet punishable as syndicated estafa,” she stressed in a seven-page resolution.

“To apply the law which defined and penalized syndicated estafa only in 1980 to an element of the latter, particularly the solicitation of monetary contribution of stockholders in 1973, would be a retroactive application of a penal law,” she added.

Because of this, she said the DOJ could only determine existence or absence of probable cause against the respondents for simple estafa.

She stressed that Erlinda Panlilio “never presented a fake title to warrant a finding that Beaumont bought the property and parted with its money through false pretenses and fraudulent means employed by her.”

The Luneta Hotel on T. M. Kalaw Street, Manila is one of the few remaining structures that survived World War II and has been undergoing “structural rehabilitation and retrofit” since it was bought by Beaumont last 2007.

The National Historical Institute has declared the building a historical landmark.       – Edu Punay