PCGG to retain OSG lawyers in ill-gotten wealth cases vs Marcoses

MANILA, Philippines - The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) explained yesterday that the agency is bound to retain the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) lawyers in the various ill-gotten wealth cases filed against the Marcos family and their cronies.

PCGG chairman Camilo Sabio said the PCGG is mandated to get OSG lawyers as their lead counsel in the cases against the Marcoses despite some problems in the performance of the government lawyers in past cases that resulted in the dismissal of some cases.

Sabio said the PCGG would rely on the OSG to assign lawyers to litigate the various recovery cases.

“We’re mandated to have the OSG to be our lead counsel in the different ill-gotten wealth cases,” Sabio said.

It can be recalled that erstwhile OSG chief Agnes Devanadera was recently named justice secretary replacing Raul Gonzalez, making Devanadera Sabio’s immediate supervisor.

The PCGG was placed under the administrative supervision of President Arroyo in 2008.

Ernest Louie Miguel, PCGG legal department chief, said that any poor performance by OSG lawyers is unavoidable.

“There is no legal office that has no imperfections,” Miguel said.

Sabio and Miguel issued the statement when asked if they will replace the lawyers in the graft complaint filed by the PCGG against businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, his wife Imelda Marcos, and six others involving the alleged diversion of some P840 million of coconut levy funds from a controversial coconut plantation development project in Bugsuk Island, Palawan in the 1980s.

The Sandiganbayan First Division had ordered the complaint removed from their docket last Nov. 14 because of the PCGG’s alleged failure to pursue the case.

It was learned that the case’s removal was mainly brought about by the failure of OSG lawyers to show up in pre-trial court meetings.

While it ordered Civil Case No. 0033-C, or the Bugsuk Island project removed from their docket, the First Division had left open an option for the government to re-file the complaint when it was ready to pursue it again.

At the time of resolution, the anti-graft court division noted that there has not been a single hearing on the case since the original complaint was filed in July 1987.

“Considering that nothing had been done by the parties to pursue this case notwithstanding the lapse of more than eight years, the Court deems the parties to have abandoned this case and hereby dismisses this sub-divided complaint, without prejudice to the re-filing thereof,” they said.

The complaint alleged that Cojuangco, Marcos, Imelda and six other individuals conspired to divert some P840.79 million from the coconut levy drawn from the Coconut Industry Development Fund (CIDF) for their own gain.

The CIDF, created on Nov. 14, 1974 through Presidential Decree 582, was a permanent fund for the development of hybrid coconut seed nut farm to supply high-yielding hybrid seed nuts to coconut farmers. For its funding, the CIDF was given P100 million from the coconut levy funds.

The CIDF was deposited with the Philippine National Bank and placed under control of the National Investment and Development Corp. (NIDC).

The NIDC signed an agreement with Agricultural Investors Inc. (AII), which Cojuangco controlled with his associates to produce hybrid coconut seed nuts on a parcel of land located in Bugsuk Island, Palawan.

In June 1978, control over the CIDF money was transferred from the NIDC to the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB), which was then controlled by Cojuangco.

In its amended complaint, the PCGG noted that Cojuangco was both president and executive officer of UCPB at the same time that he also controlled AII with this associates.

The PCGG is seeking the recovery of the P840.79 million plus income and interest earned over the years. It also demanded moral damages in the amount of P12.5 billion and exemplary damages of P250 million on top of other damages that the court may determine.

In March 1995, the Sandiganbayan ordered the break down of the coconut levy cases into eight separate complaints.