Monday, December 13, 2010

Supreme Court Orders Return Of Mansion To Marcoses

The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed a lower court's ruling that voided a government order sequestering a Marcos rest-house in Olot, Tolosa in Leyte province.


The 17-room mansion was among the properties seized by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) in 1987. The commission, formed by the late President Corazon Aquino, was tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the family of late President Ferdinand Marcos.

Voting unanimously, the high court upheld the Sandiganbayan's 2002 decision that ordered the PCGG to return the property to the dictator's wife, former First Lady and incumbent Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos.

The SC lent credence to the Sandiganbayan's findings that the PCGG failed to provide prima facie evidence that would establish, just as a preliminary determination, the mansion was indeed ill-gotten.

The SC noted that the PCGG keeps a two-commissioner rule to assure the existence of a prima facie case that the money or properties confiscated by PCGG from the Marcoses are indeed ill-gotten.

In 2002, the anti-graft court held as invalid the PCGG's seizure order which was issued by PCGG lawyers and not by any PCGG commissioner.

“Here, it is clear that the PCGG did not make a prior determination of the existence of a prima facie case that would warrant the sequestration of the Olot Resthouse," the high court pointed out.

“Nor did the Republic demonstrate that the two PCGG representatives were given the quasi-judicial authority to receive and consider evidence that would warrant such a prima facie finding," it added.

source: Yahoo News

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