CA voids QC court order on Marcelo estate

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has overturned an order of a Quezon City judge favoring one of the parties in a dispute involving the estate of the late industrialist Jose Marcelo.

In a 25-page decision, the CA’s Ninth Division voided the writ of execution issued by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 76 last year over the assets being contested by heirs, which include shares of stock and real properties.

The CA ruled that Judge Alexander Balut committed “grave abuse of discretion” in issuing the order that undermined the rights of some of the heirs to the estate.

Specifically, the CA castigated the lower court for including in its writ of execution several assets that do not actually belong to the contested estate.

It held that the court relied solely on the inventory submitted by its appointed administrator, Jose Marcelo Jr., the youngest of the four children of the late businessman.

Jose Jr. was designated as the estate administrator after his elder brother and the original administrator, Edward, died in 2009. Edward had been the estate administrator since their father passed away in 1987.

The designation of Jose Jr. as administrator was vehemently opposed by Edward’s children John Steven Marcelo and Anna Melinda Marcelo-Revilla, who is the liquidator of the Marcelo Group of Companies.

In September last year, the court – acting as a probate court – issued a new order and a corresponding writ of execution modifying the 2010 judgment by including assets owned and registered under the name of the Marcelo Group of Companies, which Edward’s children claimed were not part of the estate of the Marcelo patriarch.

The Marcelo business empire, which had practically collapsed in the 1990s, still has considerable real estate holdings spread across the country, including a 13-hectare airport casino property in Pasay – a claim disputed by Anna Melinda’s side as outside of the patriarch’s estate – as well as an eight-hectare riverfront property in Santa Ana, Manila and another eight hectares in Malabon.