PCGG scored for defying Baseco ruling

House Deputy Minority Leader Rep. Enrique Garcia has scored the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) for ignoring a court decision awarding properties of the sequestered Bataan Shipyard and Engineering Co. (Baseco) to the provincial government of Bataan.

In a privilege speech, Garcia said the PCGG should adhere to the June 1989 ruling of the Bataan Regional Trial Court ordering the consolidation of titles on the Baseco properties in favor of the provincial government.

He said the RTC decision upheld that the tax delinquency sale of the properties made by the provincial government conformed to both substantive and procedural requirements of the law.

Garcia accused the PCGG, Baseco, Bataan Gov. Leonardo Roman governor and certain judges of allegedly conniving to deprive the provincial government of what it legally owns.

He said that after the 1986 EDSA Revolution, the PCGG sequestered the shipyard but as a result of real estate tax delinquencies, the provincial government applied for the sale of the Baseco properties at a public auction, as ordained by law.

The PCGG then sought an injunction from the Sandiganbayan to stop the auction but this was denied in February 1988.

Garcia said that since the PCGG and the Baseco failed to redeem the properties within a one-year period, it gave the provincial government the right to enforce its tax lien on the Baseco properties.

This became the basis of the Bataan RTC’s final and executory order allowing the consolidation of the Baseco titles, he said.

He accused the PCGG of "forum-shopping" when it sought the transfer of the case to the Makati RTC last year.

As a co-defendant in the Baseco case, Garcia elevated the matter to the Supreme Court last January after the Makati City RTC Branch 17 voided the 1988 tax sale of the Baseco properties, nullified the titles and ordered them reinstated.