Supreme Court upholds ruling on PTIC dividends

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court has reaffirmed its ruling on an earlier decision by the Sandiganbayan awarding to the government billions of pesos worth of cash dividends and stock earnings on the shares of Philippine Telecommunications Investments Corp. (PTIC) that were forfeited in favor of the government as part of the ill-gotten wealth of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

The full court junked with finality an appeal of its Apr. 24 ruling filed by Prime Holdings Inc. (PHI) and the estate of Ramon Cojuangco, which reiterated their argument that the accrued dividends and interests of PTIC shares were not covered by the SC’s final ruling issued in December 2006 ordering the re-conveyance of the said shares to the government.

“The basic issues raised therein have been passed upon by this Court and no substantial arguments were presented to warrant the reversal of the questioned decision,” the SC stressed in the decision issued last July 24.

In its earlier decision, the SC upheld the resolutions of the anti-graft court issued on Nov. 27, 2007 and Jun. 13 last year and declared that although it did not categorically state in the dispositive portion of its 2006 final decision, it was clear from the body of the decision that what was awarded in favor of the government was “the whole block of shares and the fruits thereof.”

The PHI had sought reconsideration of this ruling, insisting that “the dispositive portion of the (2006) decision clearly states that the re-conveyance only covers the 111,415 PTIC sha-res.”

The petitioners also noted that the government enjoyed full benefits of ownership of the PTIC shares when it sold the said shares to Metro Pacific in the amount of P25.2 billion. – Edu Punay