Appeals court affirms dismissal of Jamby petition in aunt's will's case

The Court of Appeals has affirmed its decision dismissing the petition filed by former Senator Maria Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal, which questioned the last will and testament left by her billionaire aunt, Consuelo “Chito” Madrigal-Collantes. The decision, rendered on February 29, 2012, was upheld by the CA’s Former Eleventh Division's resolution, penned by Associate Justice Socorro Inting. The court denied Madrigal’s motion for reconsideration and sustained the orders of the Makati Regional Trial Court from July 14, 2010 and November 9, 2010. “After carefully considering the grounds raised in the subject motion, this Court finds that the said grounds and the arguments in support thereof have been amply treated, discussed and passed upon in the assailed decision. The additional arguments proffered therein constitute neither cogent nor compelling reason to modify. Much less reverse it,” the CA ruled. Associate Justices Fernanda Lampas-Peralta and Mario Lopez concurred with Inting. The CA in its February decision found that the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 143 through Judge Zenaida Galapate-Laguilles did not commit grave abuse of discretion in dismissing Madrigal’s notice of appeal and record on appeal on the probate of her aunt's will. The CA claimed that Madrigal “failed to present any persuasive reason which could convince us as well as the lower court to relax the rules.” Madrigal had sought to take part in the disposition, settlement and distribution of Collantes’ estimated P26-billion estate to her heirs, and even to those not mentioned in her will. Based on records, when Collantes died on March 24, 2008, Madrigal was left out of her last will and testament, prompting the former lawmaker to invalidate the will before the trial court. Collantes’ vast estate was left to her husband, former Foreign Minister Manuel Collantes, as the lone compulsory heir since they did not have children. Manuel died on May 29, 2009. According to the trial court, Collantes’ estate had been properly disposed of in her will, executed October 5, 2006. Over a year after her death, two of her nephews and heirs, Juan Vicente De Leon-Rufino and Vicente De Leon-Rufino, initiated a petition for issuance of letters testamentary or of administration before Makati RTC branch 143, since Collantes, as testatrix, was already dead. The action was opposed by then-Senator Madrigal through a notice of appeal and a record on appeal, but both were junked by the trial court. This prompted her to elevate the matter before the appeals court. This suit is separate from another pending case involving the will’s executors, attorney Perry Pe and Bank of the Philippine Islands president Aurelio Montinola III. The two questioned before the CA the ruling of Judge Oscar Pimentel of the Makati RTC Branch 148 that Madrigal has the legal personality to participate in the probate proceedings of her aunt’s last will and testament, based on rules of legal succession. Included in the subject estate are shares in 18 corporations, some of which are realty companies owning sizable properties in Makati. — BM, GMA News