THE Sandiganbayan has stopped government efforts to recover dividends paid over the last 12 years to the 111,415 shares of the Philippine Telecommunications Investments Corp. (PTIC) which were declared part of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth in December 2006 and forfeited in favor of the state.

The court directed the clerk of court "to hold in abeyance the issuance of the writ of execution" that was supposed to effectively place the said dividends in government hands

Nick Suarez, information officer of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, said recent assessment placed the value of the PTIC dividends to at least P8.5 billion.

The shares were under the name of Prime Holdings Inc. which the Sandiganbayan declared was beneficially owned by the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

PCGG has already sold the PTIC shares to First Pacific Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong for P25.2 billion last Feb. 28 but the disposition of the dividends remain unresolved.

In its latest order last Dec. 7, the court ruled in favor of giving due course to a legal challenge posed by the Estate of Ramon and Imelda Cojuangco which argued that the Supreme Court decision of Jan. 20, 2006 only settled the question of ownership of the PTIC shares but did not even mention the dividends.

In awarding the dividends to government, the Cojuangcos said the Sandiganbayan, in effect, modified the Supreme Court’s ruling. – Peter J. G. Tabingo