Pending SC case stalls bid to recover Marcos art collection

A pending Supreme Court (SC) case is hampering the Sandiganbayan from holding hearings on the government’s two-year-old bid to confiscate at least $12.76 million worth of art works from the Marcos family.

For the eighth time on Wednesday, the antigraft court’s Special Division postponed its hearing on the Presidential Commission on Good Government’s Feb. 24, 2016 motion for partial summary judgment.

This was because the Supreme Court has not yet returned the “complete records” of Civil Case No. 0141, which the Sandiganbayan forwarded on July 5, 2016.

20,036 pages

A total of 35 volumes of records, totaling 20,036 pages, were handed over to the Supreme Court , which tackles petitions contesting the antigraft court’s previous judgments that forfeited the other assets of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The SC’s custody of the records previously led the Sandiganbayan to cancel eight hearings, most recently, in January 2018. The hearing on the government’s evidence on the forfeiture of the art works is now scheduled on June 6.

The pending motion seeks the forfeiture of 152 paintings, valued at $11.84 million (P616.5 million), 27 paintings and sculptures discovered at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and valued at $584,445, and 12 Grandma Moses paintings purchased for about $370,000.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government wanted the court to decide only on the basis of the government’s evidence because former first lady and now-Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos failed to file her opposition.

The Marcoses’ vast wealth is said to have been ill-gotten because the declared lawful income of the dictator and his widow only totaled $957,487.75 from 1965 to 1985 ($1=P52.07).