ShareThisQUEZON CITY – The government has lost another illegal wealth case against the late President Ferdinand Marcos and former First Lady Imelda Marcos.
This time it is Civil Case No. 0004 (Republic vs. Andres Genito Jr., Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, et al.) that the government filed in 1987 and then took almost 25 years to present its case.
Imelda Marcos
In a 31-page decision promulgated last April 19, the Sandiganbayan Second Division dismissed Civil Case No. 0004 saying government lawyers failed to prove that the State is entitled to recover assets it is claiming against the defendants.
The recent computation by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), published in January 2011, placed the value of the assets at P1.44 billion (P1.24 billion in various stockholdings and P195 million in real properties).
The verdict was penned by Associate Justice Teresita V. Diaz-Baldos, Second Division chairperson. Associate Justices Napoleon E. Inoturan and Oscar C. Herrera Jr. concurred.
Based on the original complaint filed by PCGG in July 1987, the principal defendants in the case were Marcos, his wife, Imelda and businessman Andres Genito Jr., a Quezon City councilor from 1976-1980.
Also named respondents for allegedly acting as dummies of Marcos and Genito were Ludivina Leonardo, Raul V. Genito, Benito Genito, Elesia Vargas, Asuncion Castillo, Norma Canonigo, Andres Genito III, Abundo Garrido and Yoshio Kotake.
Government lawyers claimed Genito, a close associate of then President Marcos, received favorable intercession through his companies Atakaco Trading Corp., Tandang Sora Commercial Traders Inc. and Capital Industrial Traders and Management Consultants.
They said the defendants connived in amassing funds and property and enriched themselves by taking advantage of their influence in government through acceptance of “kickbacks” or commissions in various transactions with Japanese counterparts.