BUSINESSMAN Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco
yesterday opposed government efforts to revive Civil Case No.
0033-C, one of eight coconut levy cases, after it was dismissed
by the Sandiganbayan last Nov. 14.
In a 26-page motion, Cojuangco asked the
graft court’s First Division to affirm its ruling and junk the
government appeal.
The Presidential Commission on Good
Government had accused Cojuangco in Case No. 0033-C of
conspiring with President Ferdinand Marcos, First Lady Imelda
Marcos and six other individuals to divert P840.79 million in
coconut levy funds drawn from the Coconut Industry Development
Fund (CIDF).
The PCGG had sought to recover the P840.79
million plus income and interest earned over the years, P12.5
billion in moral damages and P250 million in exemplary damages.
Last November, however, the Sandiganbayan
dismissed the case which had not moved in over eight years due
to government lawyers’ failure to sign the pre-trial order
issued on Aug. 9, 2000. The Office of the Solicitor General
admitted in its motion for reconsideration last Dec. 5 that it
had forgotten about the case due to its heavy caseload.
Cojuangco’s motion cited several cases
ordered dismissed by the Supreme Court for having been dormant
for periods much shorter than his Case No. 0033-C which was
filed on July 31, 1987 and had not seen one trial day or been
set for trial at all.
"Not only should plaintiff’s (Republic of the
Philippines) motion for reconsideration be denied and the
dismissal be confirmed on ground of failure to prosecute; it
should likewise be justified on the ground that the long delay
in the termination of a case violates not only the right of a
party to due process but also his right to a speedy disposition
of his case," his motion said.
The P840.79 million in coco levy funds were
supposedly invested for the production of hybrid seednuts on a
parcel of land owned by Agricultural Investors Inc. (AII) in
Bugsuk Island, Palawan which was initially solely controlled by
Cojuangco in 1972 but later had other investors like Enrique and
Marcos Cojuangco, Rafael Abello, Armando Narciso and Gabriel
Villareal in 1986.
Marcos cut off the sole source of the Coconut
Industry Development Fund by terminating the collection of coco
levy funds in August 1982. Fund administrator United Coconut
Planters Bank consequently rescinded its investment agreement
with AII and was sued by the latter.
AII won P532.39 million as liquidated damages on top of
forfeiture in its favor of P426.26 million that was already
advanced to it by UCPB for the Bugsuk project. UCPB did not even
file an appeal, simply allowing the ruling to lapse to finality.
– Peter J.G. Tabingo
