P50-B suit vs Marcoses, Vers junked

The Sandiganbayan threw out on Friday the government’s P50-billion ill-gotten wealth suit against the Marcos and Ver families, Marcos trade minister Roberto Ongpin, and the participants in the so-called Binondo Central Bank, saying state lawyers failed to establish that the respondents had conspired to steal and appropriate government resources for themselves.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Samuel Martires, the antigraft court’s Special 2nd Division dismissed the 24-year-old suit against the group of defendants that included the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his trusted righthand man, Gen. Fabian Ver, Irwin Ver, Imelda Marcos, Rexor Ver, Wyrlo Ver, Helma Ver Tuason and Faida Ver Resurreccion.

The bankers and Chinese-Filipino traders who were also charged were Edna Camcam, Jimmy Chua, Go Pok, Catalino Coo, Raffy Chua, Peter Uy, Benito Peñalosa, Sio Lim, Wilson Chua, Balbino Diego, Arturo Pacificador, Sally See and Vinnie James Uy.

Underground market

They were accused of unlawfully enriching themselves at the expense of the public by manipulating the trading of dollars from 1984 to 1986 in the so-called Binondo Central Bank, a secret underground dollar market created during the severe currency crisis of the 1980s caused by the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. when international lenders stopped lending to the Philippines so that businessmen found it very hard to source badly needed dollars.

Government lawyers alleged that in 1983 Ongpin and Ver, acting on Marcos’ orders, rounded up eight black-market money traders identified as Jimmy Chua, Go Pok, Catalino Coo, Raffy Chua, Peter Uy, Benito Peñalosa, Sio Lim and Wilson Chua and organized them into a group that came to be known as the “Binondo Central Bank.”

Camcam, a director of the Equitable Banking Corp. at the time, and described by government lawyers as Ver’s “special friend,” reportedly provided banking facilities for the group’s activities.

The dollars bought locally were invested in Hong Kong using public resources, according to testimony by witnesses.

According to the prosecution, the BCB operated outside the jurisdiction of the central bank and skirted the government’s tax laws.

Insufficiency of evidence

In the suit, the government asked that it be awarded P50 billion in moral damages and another P1 billion in exemplary damages in addition to undetermined temperate and nominal damages.

In its Jan. 19 decision, the Sandiganbayan dismissed the government’s case for “insufficiency of evidence.”

In a case like this, the burden of proof lies with the plaintiff, the court ruled.

“A mere allegation is not enough. It must be supported by proof, otherwise it will just remain a story. Indeed, plaintiff Republic failed to present evidence to prove its claims,” it stressed.

It said that a review of the evidence from both sides showed that the prosecution failed to present evidence against the defendants for misappropriation and theft of public funds.

“To substantiate its claim for reconveyance, reversion, accounting and restitution, plaintiff ought to have shown that the assets and/or properties of the defendants belonged to or was once part of the vast resources of the government which were conveyed to them as managers or trustees,” the court said.

The court also pointed out that while the defendants created the Binondo Central Bank, there was no evidence presented that the Marcoses and the Vers received money from the traders by way of kickbacks or gifts.

Furthermore, the prosecution did not produce evidence to prove that certain properties of the defendants were illegally acquired, the court said.

Sequestration lifted

The Sandiganbayan also pointed out that the government did not present any testimony or proof of how the Republic suffered damages from the operation of the Binondo Central Bank.

Aside from ordering the dismissal of the civil suit, the Sandiganbayan also ordered the lifting of the sequestration order issued on the defendants’ properties by the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the agency created in 1986 to recover the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos, his family and associates.

The suit was originally filed in 1987. Government lawyers completed the marking of exhibits in 2001. Ongpin completed his presentation of evidence in June 2007.

First posted 12:11 am | Saturday, January 21st, 2012