PCGG seeks to revive behest loan case vs JDV

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) wants the behest loan case of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. revived after he failed to comply with his July 1988 agreement with the agency to pay back the $120-million loan his firm Landoil Resources Corp. obtained in the 1970s.

In a Nov. 22 letter to Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera, PCGG chairman Camilo Sabio said the civil case that has been put on hold at the Sandiganbayan can now be reinstated after De  Venecia violated the PCGG-Landoil deed of assignment.

“It appears from the records submitted by our Research and Development Department that De Venecia and the assignors (his affiliates) in the deed of assignment have not fully complied with their obligations and undertakings,” Sabio said in his letter.

According to the 13-page deed of assignment, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR, De Venecia, who used to be the president of Landoil, agreed to pay the PCGG.

The government initiated a case against De Venecia after the ouster of former President Marcos in 1986 in an attempt to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their alleged cronies.

The deed of assignment was done during the time of PCGG chairman Adolf Azcuna, now a justice of the Supreme Court, who also served as press secretary of former President Corazon Aquino. The document was signed by Ambrosio Collada, as president of Landoil Resources Corp. and as attorney-in-fact of the company’s subsidiaries and six affiliates.

The affiliates were the Philippine Singapore Ports Corp., Asian Water and Sewer Systems Inc. Construction Consortium Inc., Pacific Asia Builders and Developers, Philippine Hospitals and Health Services Inc., and Greater Manila Land Corp.

A provision in the agreement stated that PCGG shall have the authority to go after De Venecia and his group once they fail to comply with the deal.

It stated that “such case shall be deemed automatically reinstated in the event of non-compliance by any of the assignors with any of its obligations and undertakings hereunder.” 

The Landoil loan has been described as “behest” since 45 percent of its outstanding capital stock belonged to Marcos and that the Philippine Export Guaranty (Philguarantee) agreed to grant the $120-million loan, being a foreign currency loan.

But Landoil was unable to collect its receivables that even reached $169 million. Thus, Philguarantee had been obligated to pay or assume the payment of the unserviced foreign loan obligations. 

Marcos granted Landoil loans to finance construction and other projects undertaken by the company of De Venecia in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya and other Middle East countries and in North Africa.