Sandigan given more time on coco levy cases

The Supreme Court directed the Sandiganbayan yesterday not to wait for its lifting of the November 2001 suspension order it slapped on Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena but proceed with dispatch in resolving the coco levy issue.

In particular, the anti-graft court’s first division was given six more months to try and finally resolve three civil cases involving the government’s sequestered shares in the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB).

In a three-page resolution, the 13 Supreme Court justices instructed Associate Justice Gregory Ong, acting chairman of the Sandiganbayan’s first division, to continue hearing the cases since Garchitorena has been stripped of his authority to "devote" his time "exclusively to decision writing."

"To await any action from Garchitorena will again unnecessarily delay the proceedings of the cases at hand which goes against the very order decreed by this Court," the High Court said.

The Supreme Court said, "It is about time to finally settle this controversy involving the coconut levy funds for it has been straddling our courts for the last 15 years."

Last December, the Supreme Court declared that the coco levy funds amounting to P130 billion belong to the government and are deemed "public," having been collected from more than one million farmers in the early 1970s.

The decision stemmed from the case filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government which questioned the Sandiganbayan’s February 2001 ruling barring it from voting on the UCPB sequestered shares.