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BUSINESSMAN Lucio Tan successfully prevented Ferdinand
“Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Wednesday from testifying in
the government’s reconveyance case against some of his
assets and properties by pleading for more than two
hours before the court that the congressman’s testimony
would be “irrelevant” to the case.
In the
end, the Fifth Division agreed to hear the testimony of
Marcos, but not until August 20, as it ran out of time
because of the fiery exchanges between Tan’s lawyer,
Estelito Mendoza, and Catalino Generillo, special
counsel of the Presidential Commission on Good
Government (PCGG).
“I came
here prepared, and I will be prepared again for the next
hearing,” Marcos told reporters after the proceedings.
Marcos just sat at the witness stand for more than two
hours as the lawyers from both sides argued their cases.
Marcos
was being presented by the government through the PCGG
as a hostile witness in its civil case against Tan, the
subject of which are his nine holding companies and
establishments under the holding companies.
Generillo said Marcos is a hostile witness in the sense
that he, through the Marcos estate, is Tan’s codefendant
in the case. Marcos’s siblings, Imee Marcos and Irene
Araneta and his mother, former First Lady Imelda Marcos,
were also named as representatives of the estate.
On
Tuesday Marcos said that he would testify to pursue the
family’s claim to 60-percent shares of Tan’s nine
companies. These are the Fortune Tobacco Corp., Asia
Brewery Inc., Allied Banking Corp., Foremost Farms,
Himmel Industries Inc., Grandspan Development Corp.,
Silangan Holding Inc., Dominium Realty and Construction
Corp. and Shareholdings Inc.
The
Marcos family maintains Tan was the only trustee of its
patriarch, the late Ferdinand Marcos, on these
companies.
The
government had asked the young Marcos to testify in the
case and present to the court the supposed 26 documents
that are supporting his family’s claim, including deeds
of assignment.
During
the hearing,
Mendoza said that Marcos’s testimony in the case is inadmissible and
immaterial as first, the complaint had not named him as
one of the representatives of the estate and, second,
the complaint only alleged Tan as the owner of the
companies.
“There
can be no evidence that these properties are owned by
others than Tan,” he argued.
He also
said that the claim of 60-percent ownership over the
companies has been thrown out before not only by the
Sandiganbayan but even by the Supreme Court, when the
widow of Marcos filed a cross claim.
Mendoza
said that the issue between Tan and Marcos is entirely
different and the latter could pursue it before the
lower court and not within the pending case as it would
only delay its resolution.
The
defense lawyer said Tan’s case is never an ill-gotten
wealth case as it does not involve government money.
But
Generillo said the case is similar to the case of PLDT
shares that were formerly owned by businessman Eduardo
Cojuangco but which were declared by the Sandiganbayan
and the Supreme Court as owned by the Republic. |
