MANILA, Philippines?Defense lawyers have asked the Sandiganbayan to schedule more trial dates to speed up the 21-year-old graft case against tycoon Lucio Tan, claiming that the unavailability of a special counsel of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) at hearings had seriously delayed the trial.

?Based on experience in this case, the schedule thus far set will not be enough to hear all 24 witnesses lined up by the plaintiff, hence, there is a need for more hearing dates,? said Estelito Mendoza and Orlando Santiago, Tan?s lawyers, in a motion filed on Nov. 13 with the antigraft court?s Fifth Division.

The lawyers said that in the latest hearing on Sept. 24, the court suggested 22 trial dates then pared the number to 10 after PCGG special counsel Catalino Generillo Jr. ?objected to the multiple settings on the ground that it would be impossible for the plaintiff to ensure its presence on all 22 days.?

They said that even for the 10 trial dates, Generillo still ?begged off on the ground that he had scheduled hearings already.?

Generillo, for his part, said the delay in the Tan case was not brought about by scheduling matters but by the various issues raised by the defendants since it was filed in July 1987.

In Civil Case No. 0005 filed by the PCGG against the tycoon and the late President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, the government claims that Tan?s assets are part of the dictator?s ill-gotten wealth. Nikko Dizon