Sandigan junks forfeiture vs Marcos crony-owned telco

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has dismissed a forfeiture case against several alleged cronies of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his widow, former first lady Imelda Marcos, seeking to recover in favor of the government shares of stocks in Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (ETPI), allegedly illegally acquired during martial law.

In a 19-page resolution promulgated on Jan. 10, the court’s Fourth Division granted the respective demurrers to evidence filed by the defendants, in which they prayed for the dismissal of the case on the ground of supposed weakness or insufficiency of evidence presented by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).

Granted were the demurrers of defendants Rosario Arellano, Victoria Legarda, Angela Lobregat, Benito Nieto, Carlos Nieto, Manuel Nieto III, Ma. Rita Delos Reyes, Carmen Tuazon and Ramon Nieto Jr.

Likewise granted were the demurrers filed by legal representatives of deceased defendants Ramon Nieto, Benigno Manuel Valdes and Rafael Valdes.

“In the present case, we have thoroughly reviewed the records and are convinced that petitioners have failed to sufficiently prove their allegations. It is a basic rule in evidence that the burden of proof lies on the party who makes the allegations,” the Fourth Division’s resolution read.

“However, despite the protracted opportunity afforded, the sum of the plaintiff evidence failed to preponderate to their favor,” said the resolution penned by Associate Justice Lorifel Pahimna with the concurrence of Associate Justices Michael Frederick Musngi and Georgina Hidalgo.

Meanwhile, the proceedings against several other defendants who did not file their demurrer will continue. Filed by the PCGG at the Sandiganbayan in October 1997, the suit docketed as Civil Case No. 0178 seeks to recover in favor of the government 3,305 shares of stock in ETPI.

The PCGG, represented in court by the Office of the Solicitor-General (OSG), said the shares were held in trust for the Marcos couple but were registered in the names of their supposed cronies, dummies or business associates.

Two other defendants in the case – Andres Africa and Rosario Songco – already passed away and were not being represented by their heirs.

In its resolution, the Fourth Division sided with the defendants’ argument that the PCGG failed to present any evidence or witnesses that would prove that their ETPI shares were ill-gotten or that the funds used to acquire their shares belonged to the government or to any government banks or financial institutions.

Furthermore, the Fourth Division said the PCGG also failed to prove that the defendants were merely holding their ETPI shares in trust for the benefit of the Marcos family or of the Marcos spouses’ close business associate Manuel H. Nieto.

The court said the PCGG, through the OSG, also failed to “show credibly that the purported fraudulent transfer and recording of the shares in individual names [of the defendants] were undertaken to conceal its true ownership, allegedly part of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.”

The anti-graft court’s Third Division, in a decision promulgated on Dec. 4, 2019, had awarded in favor of the government P2.756 billion worth of stocks in ETPI under the names of Jose Africa and Manuel Nieto Jr., small individual shareholders and the Aerocom Investors and Managers Inc., which transferred its ETPI shares to ISM Communication Corp. on July 11, 2005.

The Supreme Court upheld the Third Division’s decision on Oct. 3, 2023.

However, while Civil Case No. 0009 and Civil Case No. 0178 are closely related as they involve the allegedly ill-gotten ETPI shares, the cases have different sets of defendants, thus the Fourth Division had earlier ruled to proceed with its own trial of the latter case.