SC asked to junk petition of Marcos cronies on $8-M Swiss deposits

The government has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss the petition of two former Marcos associates seeking to stop the forfeiture of about $8 million deposited under their names in various banks in Switzerland.

Nicasio Conti, Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) co-commissioner for litigation, said the Swiss Federal Supreme Court has already rejected the claim of Ignacio Gimenez and Roberto Olanday that their right to due process of law was violated by the Sandiganbayan.

Their petition was also “inequitable, unfair and deceitful,” he added.

The PCGG said Gimenez and Olanday can not claim that they were denied due process since the Sandiganbayan had noted that they were given all the opportunities to present evidence to prove that the $8 million was not part of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth.

Throughout the proceedings, they had repeatedly resorted to dilatory tactics to stretch out the time of litigation, the PCGG added.

The PCGG said Gimenez and Olanday may have been aware that if the forfeiture proceedings were not completed in the Philippines, the frozen accounts could be subjected to the statute of limitations and lead to the lifting of the freeze order in Switzerland.

Gimenez and Olanday might have also violated the rules against forum shopping, the PCGG added.

Gimenez and Olanday filed their petition without disclosing to the court that they also started actions seeking similar relief in the Swiss Courts, where they have sought the lifting of the freeze order on bank accounts nine times on the same grounds, Conti said.

On Dec. 28, 2006, the Sandiganbayan ordered the forfeiture in favor of the government of funds deposited in Adler Bank in Zurich, Switzerland under the name “G.E.I., Inc.” in the amounts of $3,202,736.21 and DM3,093,541.55, including all interests that were identified and frozen by the Swiss authorities as ill-gotten wealth of Fe Roa Gimenez and Ignacio Gimenez.

The court also ruled that Olanday merely acted as dummy and front of the Gimenezes, who were in turn dummies of Marcos.

The ruling was handed down by a Sandiganbayan division comprised of Presiding Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro, and Justices Diosdado Peralta and Efren de la Cruz.

Gimenez filed a motion for reconsideration dated Jan. 10, 2007 which was denied by the anti-graft court on May 31, 2007, prompting Gimenez to elevate the case to the SC.