Friday, August 03, 2007 Bongbong to testify on co-ownership claim of tycoon's firms
* PAL says Marcoses do not have any shares in airline company
ILOCOS Norte Representative Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. will testify based on his "personal knowledge" on why his family owns 60 percent of tycoon Lucio Tan's business empire, according to a government lawyer.
Lawyer Catalino Generillo Jr. of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) said Marcos will give details about the meetings he had with Tan and the number of times he inspected the factories owned by his father and the tycoon.
"His (Marcos') testimony insofar as the government is concerned would substantiate the material allegations of the case," Generillo told reporters after last Wednesday's hearing on government's ill-gotten wealth case against Tan et al.
"He will testify on the basis of his personal knowledge," Generillo added.
The PCGG counsel countered the lawyers of Tan and his fellow defendants, who claimed that the testimony of Marcos is immaterial.
Generillo said the congressman's testimony virtually bolsters the government's claim that 60 percent in Tan's nine companies was part of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.
He said Marcos would prove that the late President Ferdinand Marcos owned 60 percent of Shareholdings Inc. His shares were later transferred to two holding companies - Supreme Holdings, Inc. and Falcon Holdings, Inc.
According to Generillo, the shareholders of the two holding companies have executed blank deeds of assignment and the documents are now in the possession of the Marcos scion.
"The government has the reason to believe that the Marcoses own the two underlying holding companies because they are in possession of the Deeds of Assignment," Generillo said.
Generillo said Congressman Marcos would provide more details about the Deeds of Assignment when he returns to the Sandiganbayan on August 20 to testify.
On Wednesday, Congressman Marcos failed to give his most-awaited testimony after defense lawyers led by former justice minister Estelito Mendoza questioned his qualification as "hostile" witness for the government.
The anti-graft court's Fifth Division chaired by Associate Justice Ma. Cristina Cortez Estrada however decided to hear Marcos' testimony and asked the younger Marcos to make himself available at the next hearing.
Meanwhile, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita denied that a compromise was reached in exchange for the testimony of Congressman Marcos before the Sandiganbayan.
He said the executive branch however is awaiting the results of the cases in the Supreme Court (SC), including whether Marcos would appear after he was summoned by the court to appear on August 1 as a hostile witness for the PCGG.
The Marcoses are claiming about 60 percent of the corporations owned by Tan that the government is claiming as ill-gotten like the Shareholdings Inc., Grandspan Development Corporation, Himmel Industries Inc., Foremost Farms Corporation, Silangan Holdings Inc., Asia Brewery Inc., Fortune Tobacco Corporation, Basic Holdings Corporation, Falcon Holdings Corporation, and Supreme Holdings Inc.
Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines (PAL) president Jaime Bautista said the Marcoses do not own any share in the airline. Tan owns PAL.
"As far as PAL is concerned what I know is that they are not shareholders (of PAL)," Bautista told reporters.
Bautista said that when Tan signed a deal with the government for the privatization of the beleaguered flag carrier in 1992, it was only the group of Tan that was represented. (JMR/MSN/Sunnex)
