SolGen seeks ruling on Payanig ownership

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 08/03/2009 5:25 PM

MANILA - The Office of the Solicitor General has asked the Sandiganbayan First Division to rule on the issue of ownership over an 18.4-hectare prime property in Pasig City that is locked in a four-way dispute between the government, the Marcos family, human rights victims and private land developers.

In a six-page motion filed last July 31, assistant solicitors general Marissa B. dela Cruz-Galandines and Eric Remegio O. Panga, senior state solicitor Thelma Lee T. Raquel-Sadoy and Presidential Commission on Good Government special legal counsel Paul Lentejas pointed out that the government motion asking for summary judgment in Civil Case nos. 0093 and 0147 has been pending in court for over 13 years.

The motion, filed on March 20, 1996, sought an immediate ruling on the question of ownership based on the evidence already submitted on record primarily the affidavits of businessman Jose Yao Campos and Marcos financial consultant Rolando Gapud.

Gapud’s affidavit narrated how former President Ferdinand Marcos used public funds for his own benefit while Campos admitted that he fronted for the late strongman in several business ventures including the acquisition of the disputed Pasig property and the Independent Realty Corp. (IRC) Building which now houses the offices of the PCGG.

PCGG took over the Pasig property and the IRC Building in 1986 after Campos surrendered them to the government in exchange for immunity from suit.

The OSG noted that this is the fourth time that the government has asked for the graft court’s ruling after separate Motions to Resolve filed on August 10, 2001; July 11, 2003; and February 1, 2005.

“To this date, the motion for summary judgment has not yet been resolved. The filing of this motion does not intend to put pressure on the Honorable Court. The Republic is just impelled to do so considering that the resolution of the motion for summary judgment would determine the progress of the case,” it said.

The Sandiganbayan had already junked three other claims on the Pasig property including the one by Greehills Properties Inc. (GPI), the motions for intervention filed by Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. and that of the 9,000 human rights victims represented by former party-list Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales, movie director Joel Lamangan and group organizers Priscila Mijares and Hilda Narciso.

GPI’s claim was denied in a June 12, 2008 resolution wherein the Sandiganbayan held that the firm had no direct interest in the land dispute because it is only seeking payment of an alleged obligation owed it by Ortigas and Company Limited Partnerships (OCLP) which initiated Civil Case no. 0093.

The Marcos intervention was barred on the ground of res judicata as the graft court’s ruling dated October 31, 2008 noted that the Marcos scion was simply trying to duplicate an earlier complaint filed by his mother, former First Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos.

The complaint by the Marcos widow was dismissed on August 29, 1996 and again on appeal before the Supreme Court on April 21, 2003.

The Sandiganbayan declared that the motion for intervention Rep. Marcos was barred under the law the issues it raised had already been ruled upon by the courts with finality on a judgment on merits.

The human rights victims’s claim was likewise thrown out on the ground that it was merely contingent to the Marcos intervention which was earlier junked.

Since the Marcos claim has been overruled, the Sandiganbayan said the human rights victims’ motion for intervention no longer has any basis.

The Pasig property, bordered on three sides by Ortigas, Meralco and Doña Julia Vargas Avenues, is now party occupied by Metrowalk, a high-end shopping, dining and recreation complex.
In 2008, an independent appraiser commissioned by the PCGG assessed the value of the property at P15 billion to P18 billion.

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