Metro Manila, Philippines— The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the dismissal of the government’s ₱1.05-billion civil case against the late former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, his widow Imelda Marcos, and their cronies who allegedly acted as their dummies to accumulate ill-gotten wealth.
In a ruling promulgated on March 29 but released to the media only on Wednesday, the high court affirmed the September 2019 decision of the Sandiganbayan, which dismissed the case filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) due to lack of evidence.
In October 2019, the government filed a motion for reconsideration, but the Sandiganbayan denied this for lack of merit. This prompted the government to file a petition in June 2020 asking the SC to review the anti-graft court’s verdict.
The SC said “there is no merit” in the petition.
It noted that while the PCGG submitted numerous pieces of evidence to back its complaint, many were excluded as they were “not disclosed during the discovery process and others were excluded for violating the Best Evidence Rule.”
“While it is truly disappointing that nothing has come of this case despite the lapse of 36 years spent in litigation, the Court agrees with the Sandiganbayan that petitioner’s evidence is insufficient to support the allegations of its Expanded Complaint by a preponderance of evidence,” read the court ruling.
The PCGG first lodged the complaint in 1987, seeking to forfeit the illegally acquired properties supposedly held by the defendants. However, the “expanded complaint” which the Sandiganbayan ruled on was dated 1988.
Apart from the Marcoses, also named respondents were former Tourist Duty Free Shops, Inc. chairman Dominador Santiago, former Ambassador Bienvenido Tantoco Sr. and some of the latter’s relatives.
In its complaint, the PCGG accused ex-President Marcos of unlawfully withdrawing funds from the National Treasury, the Central Bank, and other Philippine financial institutions, and of transferring these to various payees with the intention of obtaining ill-gotten wealth.
The commission also alleged that the other defendants collaborated with Marcos to appropriate and conceal the assets he supposedly acquired illegally. In particular, the PCGG said the Tantocos and Santiago acted as dummies to unlawfully acquire various real personal properties, as well as businesses of the Marcoses.
The late dictator, who was booted out from power by a “people’s power” revolt in 1986, is the father and namesake of current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The elder Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in 1989.
His widow, Imelda, now 94, became a symbol of extravagance in an impoverished country. While her husband was in power, she accumulated millions of dollars worth of jewelry, expensive artworks and thousands of pairs of shoes.
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