The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the 2002 ruling of the Sandiganbayan that dismissed a complaint filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and lifted the sequestration orders against at least 10 corporations alleged to be repositories of the ill-gotten wealth of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his family.

The corporations are Ternate Development Corp., Fantasia Filipina Resorts, Inc., Monte Sol Development Corp., Ocean Villas Condominium Corp., Ola Del Mar Development Corp., Philippine Village Hotel, Philroad Construction Corp., Puerto Azul Beach and Country Club, Inc., Silahis International Hotel, and Sulo Dobbs Food Services, Inc.

In an 11-page decision, the SC’s Second Division ruled that the anti-graft court committed no grave abuse of discretion when it dismissed the PCGG complaint on grounds that the agency tasked with recovering the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses failed to state a cause of action.

“The complaint makes no allegations that respondent corporations have done some acts that have violated a right vested by law in the government,” stated the decision penned by Associate Justice Roberto A. Abad.

Associate Justices Martin S. Villarama Jr., Jose P. Perez, Jose C. Mendoza, and Antonio T. Carpio, chairman of the Second Division, concurred in with the decision.

The High Court also noted that the Sandiganbayan merely relied on a previous SC decision, which held that corporations alleged to have been capitalized with ill-gotten wealth need not be impleaded in the case “since judgment may be rendered against the individual defendants, divesting them of their shares of stock.”

In 1986, the PCGG issued sequestration orders against the subject corporations on the assumption that they form part of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.

The companies are under the names of Modesto Enriquez, Trinidad Diaz-Enriquez, Rebecco Panlilio, Erlinda Enriquez-Panlilio, Leandro Enriquez, Don Ferry, Roman Cruz Jr., and Gregorio Castillo, collectively known as the “Enriquez Group.”

In July 1987, the PCGG formally filed a complaint with the Sandiganbayan against former President Marcos, his wife Imelda, and the Enriquez Group seeking the recovery of their assets and properties.

Four years later or in October 1991, the commission filed an amended complaint seeking the inclusion of the corporations as defendants, alleging these were “beneficially owned or controlled by individual respondents and that they used them as fronts to amass ill-gotten wealth.”

But on February 7, 2002, the Sandiganbayan granted the motion to dismiss filed by the defendant corporations.

The anti-graft court dismissed the complaint and held that impleading the corporations as defendants was unnecessary.

It also lifted the sequestration orders against the firms, prompting the PCGG to bring their case before the High Court.

In its decision, the SC ruled the sequestration orders were issued in violation of Section 26, Article XVIII of the Constitution, which requires prima facie findings that the properties are ill-gotten wealth prior to their issuance.

The High Tribunal likewise noted that the sequestration orders against Philippine Village, Philroad, and Silahis were “null and void” from the start since it was signed only by one PCGG commissioner.

The SC cited PCGG Rules and Regulations that require the signatures of at least two commissioners on a sequestration order.

“With all the sequestration orders, there is no clear showing of a prima facie case that the sequestered properties were ill-gotten wealth,” it said.

It also pointed out that the lifting of the sequestration orders will not affect the prosecution of the main case since it does mean that the sequestered properties are not ill-gotten.