THE Sandiganbayan Special Division has taken steps to liquidate assets confiscated from former President Joseph Estrada.

Acting through the Sheriff and Security Services Office, the graft court issued invitations to nine major national dailies last Friday to participate in a raffle on Dec. 7 to determine which publication would carry the announcement of the auction of two lots identified by the court as part of Estrada’s ill-gotten wealth.

Invitations were sent to Malaya, BusinessWorld, Business Mirror, Daily Tribune, Manila Times, Philippine Star, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Bulletin and Manila Standard Today.

The notice of sale would be published in the winning newspaper once a week for two consecutive weeks pursuant to court requirements.

The lots – one measuring 5,192.88 square meters and the other with an area of 1,953.04 sq.m. – comprise the so-called Boracay mansion located at 11th Street , New Manila in Quezon City.

What once stood as an extravagant mansion that boasted of white sand-ringed swimming pool equipped with a wave-making machine, what remains of the Boracay mansion are cracked walls and rusty steel bars.

Gone are the volleyball court-sized bedrooms, 26 ceiling-mounted air conditioning units, three full-sized kitchens and the artificially-lit indoor pond under a glass-walkway.

A court official who asked not to be identified said the lots would be sold as a package with no minimum price set.

The official said the date and conditions of the actual auction would be announced later.

A prospective buyer however faces the complication of sorting out the ownership of the properties before getting the titles transferred to his name.

The Sandiganbayan declared the Boracay mansion to be part of Estrada’s ill-gotten wealth based on documents presented by prosecutors during the plunder trial showing that the P142 million used to acquire the property was traceable to the Jose Velarde account but the former chief executive has denied that the mansion is his.

Estrada has said that titles on the lots were registered with the Quezon City Registry of Deeds under the name of St. Peter Holdings Corporation.

Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio has stressed there is no doubt that Estrada is the real owner and saying St. Peter Holdings is a mere shell company, noting that the firm was only incorporated shortly before its acquisition of the Boracay mansion and that the purchase was the holding firm’s one and only transaction on record to date.

To further complicate matters, St. Peter Holdings has neglected to pay local real estate taxes after the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice had the property’s title annotated with an adverse claim at the start of the plunder trial owing to possible forfeiture by the state.

Based on said tax arrearages, the Quezon City government took possession of the bigger lot by having its title registered to its name early this year. – Peter Tabingo