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The Supreme Court has ordered the reinstatement of Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos and their sister, Irene Marcos-Araneta, as defendants in the P200-billion ill-gotten wealth case filed by the government against them in 1987 and recommended that state prosecutors be investigated for bungling the case.
The Marcoses were accused of using the media networks IBC-13, BBC-2 and RPN-9 for their personal benefit, using De Soleil Apparel for dollar salting, and of illegally acquiring and operating the Pantranco North Express Inc. bus company.
In a 27-page decision penned by Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, the Court’s Second Division noted that government prosecutors disregarded procedural rules and failed to present available crucial evidence before the trial court that would have proven the guilt or innocence of the Marcos siblings as alleged co-conspirators in the accumulation of ill-gotten wealth during the term of their late father, President Ferdinand Marcos.
Probe prosecutors
The high court also recommended to President Benigno Aquino III, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) that they conduct an investigation of the prosecutors assigned to go after the Marcoses and their alleged dummies.
“Let a copy of this decision be furnished to the Office of the President so that it may look into the circumstances of this case and determine the liability, if any, of the lawyers of the OSG and the PCGG in the manner by which this case was handled in the Sandiganbayan,” the court ruled.
Concurring in the decision were Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Martin Villarama Jr., Jose Portugal Perez and Bienvenido Reyes.
Compulsory heirs
The justices said that while the prosecutors failed to prove that the Marcos siblings had connived with their parents in accumulating ill-gotten wealth, the siblings should remain as defendants in the complaint for the reversion, reconveyance, restitution, accounting and damages filed against their father, being his compulsory heirs.
The court noted that unless the executors of the Marcos estate—former first lady and now Ilocos Norte Representative Imelda Marcos and Senator Marcos—or the heirs waived in favor of the state their right to protect the estate or those properties found to be ill-gotten wealth in their possession or ownership, they should not be dropped as defendants in the civil case pending in the Sandiganbayan.
The case against the Marcos estate executors, according to the justices, must be maintained pursuant to Section 1 of Rule 87 of the Rules of Court, which provides that actions may be commended to recover from the estate, real or personal property, or an interest therein, or to enforce a lien thereon; and actions may be commended against the executors to recover damages for an injury to a person or property, real or personal.