Sandiganbayan dismisses two ill-gotten wealth cases vs. Marcoses, Juan Ponce Enrile, Danding Cojuangco
Sandiganbayan's Second Division dismissed two ill-gotten wealth cases against former first couple Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, and businessman Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr.
The anti-graft court, in a resolution dated Dec. 6, dismissed Civil Case No. 0033-A and Civil Case No. 0033-F after the Corazon Aquino-founded Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) withdrew the cases.
Civil Case No. 0033-A accused Cojuangco of conspiring with the Marcoses in using the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) and the Coconut Consumers Stabilization Fund (CCSF) to manipulate the acquisition of 72.2% of the First United Bank for personal gain. (The First United Bank was later converted to United Coconut Planters Bank.)
Civil Case No. 0033-F, meanwhile, accused Cojuangco and his associates of misusing coconut levy funds to purchase two blocks of San Miguel Corporation shares, violating the funds' real purpose.
The PCGG, then under the leadership of Jovito Salonga, filed the civil suits on July 31, 1987, over a year after the Marcoses were booted out of Malacañang through the EDSA People Power.
But the PCGG, now led by retired Court of Appeals Justice Melchor Sadang, in a motion said it "will no longer pursue its claim for the actual, moral, temperate, nominal and exemplary damages as prayed for." It cited ongoing negotiations for a compromise agreement and previous Supreme Court (SC) rulings.
The Sandiganbayan treated the motion as a withdrawal under Section 2, Rule 17 of the Rules of Court.
“Plaintiff Republic clearly and unequivocally states that it will no longer pursue the claims for damages in these cases," it said in its decision. "It is a hornbook rule that it is not the caption of a pleading but the allegations thereat that determine its nature."
There were no objections to the PCGG's withdrawal during a July 2024 hearing. The cases were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they were dismissed permanently and cannot be refiled anymore.
Following the civil suits' dismissal, Enrile's motion to dismiss the cases has become "moot and academic."
Still, Civil Case No. 0033-A remains partially active due to an unresolved complaint-in-intervention filed by Subic International Air Charter.
Subic Air is seeking to "enable the third party to protect or preserve a right or interest that may be affected by those proceedings."
The Sandiganbayan allowed Subic Air and the government to continue their ongoing negotiations for a compromise agreement.
“In the interest of substantial justice, this Court shall allow the parties the opportunity to amicably settle Subic Air's intervention in Civil Case No. 0033-A,” it said.
