Yulo gets back property’s ownership

AFTER 14 years, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the lifting of the writ of sequestration over a 7,000-hectare farm ranch in Busuanga, Palawan owned by an alleged Marcos crony for failure of the government to preserve its assets and properties.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, the SC’s Second Division directed the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) to return ownership of the Yulo King Ranch (YKR) to its original owners, heirs of Luis Yulo and their associates.

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YKR Corporation operates the more than 7,000 hectare grazing expanse on lease from the government since the writ of sequestration issued by the PCGG in 1986 for being allegedly ill-gotten.

The SC said the PCGG may still pursue the forfeiture case it filed before the Sandiganbayan even while the management and administrative papers of the corporation is returned to its previous owners, pending the anti-graft court’s resolution on the matter.

According to the High Court, the PCGG was remiss with its duties to prevent the dissipation of the corporation’s assets being the conservator of sequestered ill-gotten properties and wealth of the Marcoses and their cronies.

“The Court deplores the fact that it took nine years for the PGCC and BAI to submit an inventory and accounting of YKR’s Corporation’s assets. The inventory and accounting was long overdue considering that YKR Corp. was sequestered in 1986. The PCGG should always be mindful of its role as a conservator of the property sequestered, frozen or provisionally taken,” the Court held.

“Wherefore, we grant the petition. We lift the writ of sequestration issued against YKR Corp. We direct the PCGG and the BAI to restore petitioners all their assets, properties, records and documents subject of the sequestration,” it ruled.

The Court noted that it took nine years before the PCGG and BAI were able to comply with its 1996 directive to submit an inventory and accounting of the corporation’s assets which include livestock, supplies, structures, equipment and spare parts.

Based on the government’s summary of livestock inventory included in the inventory report, the Court noted that when BAI took over the management of YKR Corporation in 1986, it had 5,477 cattle and 115 horses.

Through the years from 1992, the assets of the corporation dwindled in that from 3,137 cattle and 57 horses, they decreased to 2,621 cattle and 69 horses in 2004. As of 2005, there were only 2,565 cattle and 76 horses left in the ranch.

The accounting explanation made by BAI cited “the dispersal of animals and animal mortalities” as the reasons for the decrease in the cattle population.

But the SC said there was nothing in the report that would show that the dispersal of animals and animal mortalities were documented or supported by records.

“The compliance by the PCGG and BAI painted a bleak picture of the state of corporation. In order to prevent the wastage of the assets of the YKR Corp., the Court deems it proper to lift the writ of sequestration pending the final resolution of the main case before the Sandiganbayan,” the Court held.

It also noted that even the inventory of the properties, supplies, and equipment, only indicated the date and cost of acquisition, the depreciation value and the net value but failed to state the beginning balance from which the Court can compare the current value and status of the assets of YKR Corporation

The return of the corporation to its owners, the Court said, should not prevent the PCGG from pursuing its case before the Sandiganbayan seeking the reconveyance of the property to the government for being part of the ill-gotten wealth.

Concurring with Carpio are Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Mariano del Castillo, Roberto Abad, and Jose Portugal Perez.

Court records showed that the government through the PCGG filed a complaint for reconveyance, reversion, accounting and damages against Peter Sabido, the late President Marcos, former first lady Imelda Marcos, Yulo, Roberto S. Benedicto, and several others seeking to recover several properties believed to be acquired by them through illegal means.

In an amended complaint, the government impleaded YKR Corporation, which was listed as Sabido’s personal property.

In his answer to the complaint, Yulo claimed that YKR Corporation, listed as Sabido’s real property, is principally public land leased to YKR Corporation, with an occupied and developed area of 7,000 hectares, and some 120 titled hectares acquired from private persons.

Due to the failure of the PCGG and BAI to comply with the requirement, the petitioners filed a motion to lift sequestration, citing PCGG’s October 17, 1996 manifestation, on the ground that it had lost control of the assets of the corporation to its fiscal agent which it could not control.

YKR Corporation alleged that the PCGG violated the constitutional rights of the corporation and its stockholders because of its continued sequestration without due process of law. (JCV/Sunnex)