Sandigan dismisses ill-gotten wealth case against Imelda brothers

THE Sandiganbayan has dismissed the ill-gotten wealth case filed against the siblings of former First Lady and now Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos.

In a 76-page decision, the anti-graft court First Division said there is insufficiency of evidence to hold spouses Armando and Vilma Romualdez and former Tacloban City mayor Alfredo “Bejo” Romualdez liable for the civil forfeiture case filed against them by the government 29 years ago.

Armando and Alfredo are brothers of Imelda, the widow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The Marcos couple were also named defendants in the civil forfeiture case.

In the decision promulgated on Aug. 15, the court granted the demurrers to evidence of the three defendants in the Civil Case No. 0019. It is one of the several civil cases involving ill-gotten wealth lodged against the Marcos heirs and their cronies.

The case involved the civil forfeiture filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government on July 27, 1987, asking the court to forfeit in favor of the government the following properties:  67 parcels of land in the provinces of Isabela, Camarines Sur, Occidental Mindoro, Masbate, and in La Vista, Quezon City; shares of stocks in six private corporations; a fleet of heavy equipment vehicles; 500 heads of imported breeding cattle; bank deposits; six airplanes; a helicopter; a racehorse.

The prosecutors alleged that the Romualdezes used the following corporations to get loans from government financial institutions to purchase the disputed properties: Golden Country Farms Inc., Imperial Livestock Industries Inc., Isabela Gas and Power Development Corp., Highway Builders Inc., Maconacon Airways Inc., and Dipudo Industries Inc.

The court said the state prosecutors failed to prove in its 400 documentary exhibits that the sequestered properties were acquired through ill-gotten wealth.

The court noted that the government prosecutors also failed to prove the probity of the documentary exhibits which were mere photocopies of the originals.

“The Republic failed to support the acceptability of its secondary evidence. It proceeded with the presentation and identification of photocopied documents by their custodians, offered and submitted them in evidence, without a clear explanation on the whereabouts of their originals,” the court said.

The decision was penned by First Division chairman Associate Justice Efren Dela Cruz and concurred by members Associate Justices Michael Frederick Musngi and Maria Theresa Mendoza-Arcega.

Meanwhile, Rep. Imelda Marcos, known for her lavish lifestyle as First Lady, faces 10 criminal charges of graft before the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division for allegedly having pecuniary interests in various foundations set up by her and her husband Ferdinand to allegedly accumulate ill-gotten wealth.

Rep. Marcos was charged with graft as early as 1991 for the alleged offenses when she was a member of the Interim Batasan Pambansa and Minister for Human Settlements.

After two decades of martial rule, Imelda and her husband , along with their children, fled to Hawaii following a peaceful people’s uprising that toppled the Marcos regime.

READ: Imelda Marcos allowed to travel to Singapore despite graft cases