PCGG to pursue sequestration of Lucio Tan firms before SC

Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) officials on Thursday said they will contest before the Supreme Court the Sandiganbayan decision to lift the sequestration orders on four firms of tycoon Lucio Tan. "This (Sandiganbayan order) is not the end, this is not final and executory," PCGG commissioner Ric Abcede told GMA 7's DZBB. Abcede expressed optimism that the government will be able to gain a favorable decision, noting that the high tribunal had reversed previous Sandiganbayan rulings. Tan was able to regain control and management of Allied Banking Corp., Fortune Tobacco Corp., Foremost Farms and Sharholdings, Inc. In a 59-page decision, the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division found that the government was unable to prove that seizure and control over the four companies had legal basis. Tan said he would go after the ones responsible for the losses incurred since 1986, when the PCGG won writs of sequestration over the four companies. He reportedly told that he would pursue cases against former PCGG chairman Jovito Salonga and run after the remaining assets of the latter's successor, the late Ramon Diaz. Abcede, however, said the PCGG had nothing to do with the assets of the contested firms. He noted that the PCGG was unable to gain board seats nor set up asset monitoring systems in the four companies. "There was no way (for the PCGG to be involved), as far as I know," Abcede said. The Sandiganbayan said in its decision that "the questioned writs of sequestration were issued without the requisite prima facie factual foundation that the properties covered thereby are 'ill-gotten' wealth." "(T)here is sufficient reason to impel this Court to declare them as null and void and to terminate the role of government as conservator of the properties covered thereby," the decision read. Associate Justice Teresita Diaz-Baldos penned the joint decision while Associate Justices Roland Jurado and division chair Ma. Cristina Cortez-Estrada signed the full concurrence. PCGG seized all four companies in 1986 on the strength of its writs of sequestration. That same year, Tan and his co-petitioners asked the Supreme Court to void the sequestration orders. The magistrates them referred the matter to the Sandiganbayan.-GMANews.TV