Sandiganbayan affirms ruling, denies Marcos family bid to retake seized properties

The Sandiganbayan on Friday denied the Motion for Reconsideration filed by former First Lady Imelda Marcos and her daughter Irene Marcos-Araneta and affirmed its January 2023 Resolution which denied the Marcoses bid to take back the wealth and properties seized from them by the government.

“A Motion for Reconsideration should be denied when the same only constitutes a rehash of issues previously put forward. A careful reading of the defendants’ motion shows that they did not present any new arguments which would warrant a reconsideration of the Court’s Resolution dated 25 January 2023,” the Sandiganbayan said.

“[A]fter thoughtful consideration thereof, as well as the records of this case, the Court still does not find any cogent reason to overturn its earlier pronouncements. In view of the foregoing, the defendants failed to show a good reason to justify the discretionary execution of the Decision dated 16 December 2019. The Court thus maintains its earlier pronouncement in the Resolution dated 25 January 2023,” the Sandiganbayan concluded.

The anti-graft court, in a January 2023 15-page Resolution on Civil Case 0002, said that 22 properties and assets illegally acquired by the Marcos family during the regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and already recovered by the Philippine government, transferred to third persons not included in this case, or became the subject of Court decisions and compromise agreements, were already “considered moot and academic.”

The Marcoses, in their February 2023 Motion for Reconsideration, argued that the legality of the seizure of the Marcos properties that were transferred to the government or third parties was not yet moot and academic because the PCGG was only acting as a conservator of the “alleged ill-gotten properties.”

These properties were transferred to the government through compromise agreements without the consent of the defendants who were its supposed rightful owners.

The Marcoses also insisted that the compromise agreements entered into by the PCGG and third parties were null and void for the lack of consent of the defendants who were the registered owners of the properties while the instant case was pending. As such, the Marcoses said such properties should be returned to the lawful owners.

However, the Sandiganbayan said in its January decision that the Supreme Court's rulings were clear in providing for the seizure of the properties from the Marcoses by upholding the validity of compromise agreements between the Philippine government - as represented by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), tasked to go after the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their associates, and the Office of the Solicitor General - and the Marcoses’ co-defendants.

GMA News Online had sought comment from Senator Imee Marcos on the matter but neither her nor her representatives had responded as of posting time. — DVM, GMA Integrated News