THE camp of businessman Ramon Cojuangco, wife Imelda, and Prime Holdings Inc. (PHI) have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to reconsider its ruling to forfeit in favor of government the cash and stock dividends from 111,415 block of shares in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) as ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.

Petitioners over the weekend filed a motion for reconsideration, insisting that there was nothing in the SC’s final ruling issued in 2006 which mentioned that the dividends and interests accrued from the Philippine Telecommunications Investments Corp. (PTIC) stocks are covered by the reconveyance of said shares to the state.

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Subject of the motion for reconsideration was the High Court’s April 24, 2009 decision denying the petition filed by PHI, the Cojuangcos and other claimants of PTIC seeking the nullification of the resolutions issued by the Sandiganbayan on November 27 and June 13, 2008.

“The dispositive portion of the (2006) decision clearly states that the reconveyance only covers the 111,415 PTIC shares. Accordingly, nothing more is to be read into said dispositve portion, so as to allow inclusion in the writ of execution of dividends and interests not covered in the decision,” said petitioners.

They claimed the court’s decision sets “a dangerous precedent” of trying to correct an error in a final and executory decision. They maintained that once a decision is final, the court can no longer modify it unless there are clerical errors or when the judgment is void.

“Public policy therefore demands of the Honorable Court to uphold the doctrine of finality of judgments, conformably to established jurisprudence, and strike down the assailed resolutions of the Sandiganbayan, which are void for varying the tenor of the (2006) decision and for exceeding its terms,” petitioners added.

Petitioners further pointed out that the government enjoyed full benefits of the ownership of the PTIC shares when it sold the said shares to Metro Pacific in the amount of P25.2 billion.

As a consequence, the government abandoned its rights to the dividends, they said.

In its April 24 ruling, the SC directed the reconveyance to the Republic of the 111,415 shares of PLDT stock owned by PTIC in the name of PHI, and declared the Republic as the “owner of these shares and, necessarily, the dividends and interests accruing thereto.”

It issued the ruling in consonance with its August 2006 decision declaring the state as the owner of the block of shares of PLDT, including dividends and interests, estimated to reach P8.5 billion.

Although it was not mentioned in the dispositive part of its decision, the SC said that it is clear from the body of the decision that what was being adjudicated in favor of the Republic was “the whole block of shares and the fruits thereof.”

The SC also did not give merit on the argument of the petitioners that the state has abandoned its right to the dividends when it sold the PTIC shares to Metro Pacific Assets Holdings Inc. (Metro Pacific), owned by PLDT chairman Manny Pangalinan, in the amount of P25.2 billion.

In 2006, the SC ordered the Cojuangcos to return to the government the 111,415 PLDT shares of PTIC after determining that they were part of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.

PTIC, controlled by the Cojuangco and Yuchengco groups, was the biggest shareholder in PDLT with 28 percent, before it sold its holdings to the First Pacific group represented by Pangilinan.

PHI was ordered sequestered on May 9, 1986, but its sequestration was voided by the Sandiganbayan in 1993 on the ground that the PCGG order bore only one signature and the suit against the Cojuangcos was initiated after the six-month period prescribed by the Constitution.

PHI was put up on October 5, 1977 through incorporators Jose Campos Jr., Rolando Gapud, Renato Lirio, Ernesto Abalos, and Gervacio Gaviola. (ECV/Sunnex)