Sandiganbayan dismisses late envoy’s forfeiture case

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has junked a forfeiture case against the late ambassador Benjamin Romualdez and his wife, Juliette Gomez-Romualdez, citing the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG)’s “inordinate delay” in prosecuting the case, as well as a wealth forfeiture case of businessman Ernest Escaler and his late father, Ernesto.

In a 13-page resolution promulgated on June 26, the anti-graft court’s Special Sixth Division granted the motion to dismiss filed by the Romualdez spouses, as represented by Juliette and their children as their heirs, including House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

The anti-graft court found merit in the contention of the Romualdez family that the case must be dismissed on the ground of the violation of their constitutional right to speedy disposition of cases.

The court said the PCGG, represented in court by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), failed to provide any valid justification for its failure to prosecute or present evidence and witnesses even after 38 years since the case was filed in 1987.

“The 38 years expended by the plaintiff in prosecuting this case, and its utter failure to provide sufficient justification for said delay constitutes inordinate delay. This has prejudiced defendants as the hiatus has adversely affected witness’ recall and the quality of the evidence that defendants’ heirs may adduce in their defense,” the court’s resolution read.

“All told, the Court finds the period in question to be vexatious, capricious or oppressive to defendants as would warrant the dismissal of the case on the ground of inordinate delay,” it added.

Docketed as Civil Case No. 0035, the PCGG’s forfeiture suit seeks to recover in favor of the government several properties, shares of stock and other funds allegedly illegally acquired by the Romualdez spouses during the Martial Law regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

Among the alleged ill-gotten assets of the Romualdez family which the PCGG sought to be forfeited in favor of the government were the 7,087-square meter beachfront property in Mabini, Batangas; shares of stocks and assets of Palm Avenue Holding Co. Inc. and Palm Avenue Realty Development Corporation (Palm Companies) and 6.2 million shares of stock, which Benjamin Romualdez’s Trans Middle East Phils. Equities Inc. (TMEPEI) allegedly illegally acquired from Philippine Commercial and Industrial Bank or PCIB (now Banco De Oro).

The PCGG had earlier alleged that Benjamin took advantage of his relationship as the brother-in-law of Marcos Sr. in acquiring majority shares in PCIB, by using the TMEPEI and a certain Edilberto Narciso Jr. as “dummy buyers.”

In 1997, the PCGG amended the information of the forfeiture case to include Palm Companies as defendants, alleging that Benjamin Romualdez was the real “beneficial owner” of the Palm Companies’ shares.

The Escaler case, meanwhile, stemmed from the supposed unlawful acquisition of the bottling business of Pepsi Cola Inc. using coco levy funds during Martial Law.

The Escaler father and son were the remaining respondents in the case following the Second Division’s dismissal of all the eight coco levy-related forfeiture cases against the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his wife former First Lady Imelda Marcos last year, on the ground of “inordinate delay” in the prosecution of the cases.

In dismissing the forfeiture case against the Escalers, the Second Division cited the PCGG’s “Bagong Pilipinas Commission Resolution No. 2024-0710-002” passed last year, wherein the PCGG commissioners resolved to “desist from further proceedings in the present case.”

The Second Division noted that in the said resolution, the PCGG stated that all parties had already “agreed to settle the controversy and put an amicable end to said suit”, with the PCGG admitting the loans involved in the case were already paid in full by Pensacola Marketing and Distributors Inc. in 1989.