MANILA, Philippines – Anti-graft court Sandiganbayan has dismissed the last six coconut levy cases against former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., former first lady Imelda Marcos, former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile, businessmen Cesar Zalamea and Jesus Pineda, and the heirs of former Zamboanga Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat.
The court cited the failure of the plaintiff — the Republic of the Philippines — to advance the cases to trial despite their pendency for 37 years, resulting in significant financial costs and missed opportunities for the government to strengthen its claims.
In a 42-page resolution dated Thursday, December 12, the Sandiganbayan’s 2nd Division barred the government from pursuing Civil Case Nos. 0033-B to E and 0033-G to H, citing the legal principle of stare decisis, which prevents the re-litigation of issues previously resolved by a competent court in similar cases.
The decision, authored by Associate Justice Geraldine Faith Econg and concurred with by Associate Justices Edgardo Caldona and Arthur Malabaguio, held that the 2019 Supreme Court ruling in Cojuangco vs. Sandiganbayan should also apply to the remaining defendants.
The court said that, like the late businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, the defendants’ constitutional rights to due process and a speedy resolution of cases were violated due to excessive delays.
“Plaintiff Republic has not presented any compelling argument for this Court to re-litigate and reopen these matters, much less a reason to diverge from the conclusions of the highest court of the land,” the ruling read.
A long road
The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) filed the original case, Civil Case No. 0033, in July 1987, seeking to recover the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth and claim billions in damages.
In 1995, it was divided into eight separate cases to manage the large number of defendants. These cases were identified as Civil Case Nos. 0033-A to 0033-H.
The government achieved two major Sandiganbayan victories in the past that were upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012:
- Civil Case No. 0033-A resulted in a 2003 ruling that declared a 72.2% stake in First United Bank (equivalent to 64.98% of United Coconut Planters Bank) as government property
- Civil Case No. 0033-F resulted in a 2004 partial summary judgment that awarded 33,133,266 San Miguel Corporation shares to the government for the benefit of coconut farmers
However, efforts to obtain partial judgments in the six other cases were unsuccessful:
- Civil Case No. 0033-B focused on the alleged conspiracy among defendants to create various companies using coconut levy funds (government claims valued at P270 million)
- Case 0033-C centered on alleged anomalies in the Bugsuk Island hybrid coconut seedling project (government claims valued at P998 million)
- Case 0033-D addressed payments to oil mills (government claims valued at P1.87 billion)
- Case 0033-E involved the misuse of levy collections (valuation for government claims not specified)
- Civil Case No. 0033-G questioned the acquisition of Pepsi-Cola Philippines (government claims valued at P206.6 million)
- Case 0033-H covered behest loans and contracts involving coconut levy funds (government claims valued at P673.34 million)
The Sandiganbayan said the defendants were subjected to years of uncertainty, suspicion, and financial strain due to the prolonged litigation.
The court ruled that the inaction of the PCGG and the Office of the Solicitor General led to “vexatious, capricious, and oppressive delays” that violated the defendants’ right to a speedy resolution of their cases.
“It is patently absurd to claim that the current amount of delay is necessary or beneficial to the resolution of the cases herein. Mere invocation of the gravity and notoriety of the overarching illegal scheme or activity upon which a specific case relates will not suffice as justification for the delay in its resolution,” the ruling read. – Rappler.com