Tuesday, August 19, 2008 SC upholds freeze order on Marcos cronies’ assets
THE Supreme Court (SC) has denied the bid of two associates of the late President Ferdinand Marcos to lift the freeze order issued by the Sandiganbayan on the US$8-million (P350-million) Swiss bank deposits believed to be part of the late dictator’s ill-gotten wealth.
The SC First Division affirmed the anti-graft court’s December 28, 2006 decision that ordered the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to proceed with the forfeiture of the assets of petitioners Ignacio Gimenez and Roberto Olanday.
Gimenez is the estranged husband of Fe Roa-Gimenez, then social secretary of Marcos and wife Imelda. Olanday is Gimenez’s brother-in-law, who supposedly acted as dummy for the couple.
Gimenez and Olanday were believed the conduits of the Marcos couple in depositing the amount in Adler Bank in Zurich, Switzerland under account number 595710 containing the Marcos millions.
“The Court resolves to deny the petition for failure of petitioners to sufficiently show that the Sandiganbayan committed any reversible error in the challenged decision and the resolution as to warrant the exercise of this Court’s discretionary appellate jurisdiction,” the SC ruled.
Associate Justice Teresita de Castro, who used to be the presiding justice of the anti-graft court, took no part in the deliberation and voting. Justice Minita Chico-Nazario added to members of the division in place of de Castro.
In the December 28, 2006 decision and May 31, 2007 resolution of the Sandiganbayan, the anti-graft court forfeited in favor of the government the US$8-million Swiss bank deposits of the Gimenezes, amid their persistently call for the Swiss Federal Court to unfreeze the bank accounts.
The Sandiganbayan gave weight on evidence presented by the PCGG and the Office of the Solicitor General that Olanday acted as a dummy for the Gimenezes when he was assigned beneficial owner of the bank deposits.
The Gimenez deposits had been frozen soon after the 1986 Edsa People Power revolution, while the couple became co-respondents in a number of ill-gotten wealth cases against the Marcos family.
The US$8 million was in danger of being lost as the Swiss Federal SC early this year threatened to lift the freeze order on the account if the Sandiganbayan failed to hand down a forfeiture order.
According to the PCGG, the funds were held under the name of GEI Incorporated, a company registered in Panama.
The Sandiganbayan found out that Gimenez had set up Guaranteed Education, Inc., a pre-need educational plan company, in July 1985. He owned 96 percent of the firm’s stock while Olanday was assigned nominal shares.
Not long after, a firm named GEI Incorporated was registered in Panama whose directors and officers overlapped with those of Guaranteed Education.
The PCGG said the Swiss deposits were “unlawfully acquired by the spouses Gimenez, in conspiracy with Olanday, and are grossly disproportionate to their lawful income.” (ECV/Sunnex)
