MANILA, Philippines—Businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. on Tuesday opposed attempts by the government to resurrect one of the eight coco levy cases against the San Miguel Corp. chair, which the government lost last November.

In a motion, Cojuangco’s lawyers asked the Sandiganbayan’s First Division to affirm its Nov. 14 ruling dismissing Civil Case 033-C, or the Bugsuk Island coconut project, and junk the government appeal against the decision.

In ruling against the government, the anti-graft court ordered the case removed from its docket noting that it had not moved for eight years after government lawyers failed to sign a pre-trial order issued on Aug. 9, 2000.

But it left open the option for government to refile the complaint when it is ready to pursue the case again.

The Office of the Solicitor General filed a motion for reconsideration last Dec. 5 in which it admitted that it had forgotten about the case during the eight years because of its heavy case load.

Cojuangco’s lawyers argued that the delay of more than 20 years was enough basis to dismiss the case and deny the state’s motion for reconsideration.

“Not only should plaintiff’s (Republic of the Philippines) motion for reconsideration be denied and the dismissal be confirmed on ground of failure to prosecute …, it should likewise be justified on the ground that the long delay in the termination of a case violates not only the right of a party to due process but also his right to a speedy disposition of his case,” the lawyers said.

They also noted that the case was filed way back in July 31, 1987 and that no single trial on the case was held.

The lawyers also argued that the Supreme Court has ordered the dismissal of cases which never moved for much shorter periods.

Forced tax on coconut farmers

Civil Case 0033-C accuses Cojuangco, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos and six other individuals of conspiring to divert for their own gain some P840.79 million from the coconut levy funds—a forced tax imposed by Marcos on coconut farmers—drawn from the Coconut Industry Development Fund (CIDF).

The CIDF, which Marcos created by presidential decree in 1974, was a permanent fund for the development of a hybrid coconut seednut farm to supply high-yielding hybrid seednuts to coconut farmers. For its funding, the CIDF was given P100 million from the coco levy funds.

The CIDF was deposited with the Philippine National Bank and placed under the control of the National Investment and Development Corp. (NIDC).

The NIDC then signed an agreement with Agricultural Investors Inc. (AII) to produce hybrid coconut seednuts on a parcel of land which the latter owned on Bugsuk island in Palawan.