Sandiganbayan allows several documents as evidence in ill-gotten wealth case

The Sandiganbayan has granted the government prosecutors’ bid to include several sets of documents as evidence in the P2.4 billion ill-gotten wealth case against the late President Ferdinand Marcos, his wife Imelda and their over 40 associates.

In a Resolution dated December 11 on Civil Case 0010, the anti-graft court said these 15 sets of documentary evidence were compliant with Section 5, Rule 130 of the Rules of Evidence.

Civil Case 0010 alleges that the late President Marcos, his wife Imelda, Alfredo Romualdez, Jose Campos, Jr., and over 40 other individuals accumulated P2.4 billion worth of ill-gotten wealth off the parcels of land belonging to the Bataan Shipyard and Engineering Company, Inc., and its subsidiaries Philippine Dockyard Corporation and BASECO Drydock & Construction Co., Inc. 

Section 5, Section 5, Rule 130 of the Rules of Evidence states that “when the original document has been lost or destroyed, or cannot be produced in court, the  offeror, upon proof of its execution or existence and the cause of its  unavailability without bad faith on his part, may prove its contents by a  copy, or by a recital of its contents in some authentic document, or by the  testimony of witnesses in the order stated.”

The admitted sets of evidence include:

• letters involving BASECO Corporate Secretary, Romualdez, among other individuals
• inventory of BASECO titled and contracts with NASSCO, EPZA and Government Service Insurance System
• technical descriptions of properties, certification by Batangas Provincial Assessor
• deed of transfer
• memos
• affidavits
• blank notice of waiver
• memorandum report, among others.

Back in November 2022, the Sandiganbayan denied the government’s move to declare seven defendants in Civil Case 0010 in default or having waived their right to participate in the trial. 

The anti-graft court said in the said November ruling that the government failed to notify all seven defendants and furnish them copies of its motion for declaration of default involving Civil Case 0010. —NB, GMA Integrated News