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THE
First Division of the Sandiganbayan has blocked the
attempt of businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco to
regain his majority ownership of the United Coconut
Planter’s Bank (UCPB) by denying with finality his
appeal on the court’s earlier resolution that declared
his more than 70-percent shares as owned by the
Republic, having been bought with coconut-levy funds.
In a
nine-page resolution issued on November 29, the court
threw out for lack of merit the businessman’s motion
seeking to reconsider its June 5, 2007 resolution that
affirmed its July 11, 2003 partial summary judgment
awarding to the government his 72.2-percent shares of
stock with the bank.
“The
points raised by Cojuangco have already been passed upon
in the resolutions of this Court, including the Court’s
partial summary judgment, and more particularly the
resolution of June 5, 2007,” the court said in its
ruling.
“Upon
scrutiny of the arguments in defendant Cojuangco’s
motion for reconsideration…the court finds the said
motion bereft of merit as there are no cogent reasons to
reverse its resolution. The points raised by defendant
Cojuangco have already been passed upon in the
resolutions of this court,” it added.
In its
June 5 resolution, the antigraft court said the awarding
to the government of the contested shares was “final and
appealable judgment.” Its decision prompted Cojuangco to
appeal.
However,
in its latest resolution, the First Division rejected
the businessman’s arguments that there were still
“triable issues” which include his claim that he
acquired his shares from Pedro Cojuangco, who is the
former owner of UCPB.
In
filing his motion for reconsideration, Cojuangco claimed
that he legally acquired the funds as supported by the
agreement he signed with Pedro Cojuangco’s lawyer, now
Sen. Edgardo Angara, in May 1975.
The
court, however, turned down the businessman’s argument,
saying that this has been extensively tackled and
settled in the 2003 judgment.
It
maintained that the use by the Philippine Coconut
Authority (PCA) of coconut-levy funds to purchase 72.2
percent of UCPB, then First United Bank (FUB) in 1975,
was illegal.
“Section
2 of Presidential Decree No. 755, which was cited by the
PCA as authority for the use of the Coconut Consumers’
Stabilization Fund, was never published and hence did
not acquire binding force,” the First Division said.
It added
that without a legal basis for the purchase of FUB, the
turnover of bank shares to Cojuangco for brokering the
deal was also invalid. |
