FORMER senators Jovito Salonga and Wigberto
Tañada, representing coconut farmers, on Friday asked the
Supreme Court to reverse a Sandi-ganbayan decision declaring the
20-percent share in San Miguel Corp. being claimed by
businessman Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco are not part of the coco
levy funds.
The Sandiganbayan First Division ruled on
Nov. 28, 2007 that Cojuangco is the rightful owner of the
contested shares in the giant food conglomerate. The ruling
ended almost 20 years of litigation where the government was
represented by the Presidential Commission on Good Government.
In their petition, the coco farmers said the
anti-graft court erred and decided the case in violation of law
and contrary to the previous ruling of the high tribunal that
the SMC shares are not public property.
Petitioners said the SMC shares, having been
bought from loans sourced from United Coconut Planters’ Bank and
the Coconut Industry Investment Fund’s oil mills are deemed to
have been bought with public funds.
They said Cojuangco himself admitted that the
block of shares were bought through loans from UCPB made by 14
holding companies subsequently found to belong to government.
Tañada said that even assuming that the loans
from UCPB were not public funds, Cojuangco, as
president/director of UCPB and CIIF companies, violated his
duties to the said companies in buying the SMC shares from loan
proceeds. He said Cojuangco "took a commercial opportunity that
rightfully belonged to the UCPB, a public corporation," thus,
subject shares of the food firm should revert to the government.
At the time of the Sandiganbayan’s assailed
ruling, the Cojuangco bloc was worth P18.8 billion based on the
closing price of San Miguel shares at P47.
The Sandiganbayan junked the farmers’
complaint in its Nov. 28 ruling for failure of the PCGG to prove
by preponderance of evidence its causes of action against
Cojuangco with respect to the 20-percent SMC shares of stock
registered under his name.
The court said lawyers from the PCGG and the
Office of the Solicitor General presented insufficient evidence
to prove the crucial allegation in its complaint – that
Cojuangco used coconut levy funds, which had been declared
public funds, to acquire his stake in SMC.
The same ruling also junked a separate claim
by the Philippine Coconut Producers Federation (Cocofed), saying
its motion to have the case set for trial and that it be allowed
to present its own evidence had been "overtaken by developments"
as the issue of ownership was already resolved.
Aside from Salonga and Tañada, other intervenors were former
Rep. Oscar Santos, Romeo Royandoyan of the Surigao del Sur
Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives; Moro Farmers
Association of Zamboanga del Sur; Coconut Farmers of Southern
Leyte Cooperative; Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement;
Coconut Industry Reform Movement; Vicente Fabe of the Pambansang
Kilusan ng mga Magsasaka; Nonito Clemente of Niugan; Nilo Suante
of Kammpil; and former Philippine Coconut Authority chairman
Virgilio David. – Evangeline C. de Vera
