|
BUSINESSMAN Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. asked the First
Division of the Sandiganbayan on Monday to set aside its
May 11, 2007, resolution that awarded the disputed
shares in the United Coconut Planters Bank to the
government as it pleaded for a full-blown trial.
In a
motion for reconsideration/modification, Cojuangco,
through his lawyer Estelito Mendoza, asked the antigraft
court to reconsider its ruling and order a trial for him
to present his evidence for the entry of a proper
judgment.
“Unless
defendant Cojuangco is given the opportunity to present
evidence, there would be an effective denial of his
right to be heard, a violation of due process rights,”
he said.
On May
11, the First Division declared that the UCPB shares are
owned by the government, as it denied the separate
motions for a trial on the ownership dispute by the
businessman and the Philippine Coconut Producers
Federation Inc. (Cocofed).
“The
Court finds that indeed, there are no more triable
issues that have to be addressed that would necessitate
the presentation of evidence by the parties herein,” it
earlier said in an 11-page ruling.
The
resolution declared that the partial judgment it issued
on July 11, 2003, on the shares “is now final.”
“It
appears that all pertinent issues have already been
addressed by the Court and trial could be dispensed
with. There is no more point in proceeding with trial
where the principal issue of ownership of the UCPB
shares as well as the relevant subissues have already
been resolved,” the court said.
The
ruling affirmed the court’s pronouncement that the use
by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) of
coconut-levy funds to purchase 72.2 percent of First
United Bank (FUB)— later called UCPB—in 1975 was
illegal.
It held
that Section 2 of Presidential Decree 755, cited by the
PCA as authority for the use of the Coconut Consumers’s
Stabilization Fund (CCSF), was never published and hence
did not acquire binding force.
The
First Division said that without a legal basis for the
purchase of FUB, the bank shares turned over to
Cojuangco for brokering the deal were also declared
invalid.
It added
that since Cocofed’s claim also relies heavily on
Presidential Decree 755, which has already been declared
“constitutionality infirm,” such claim “will necessarily
fail and would only be a futile effort.”
Cocofed
had earlier challenged Sandiganbayan’s jurisdiction over
the case. It claimed the court must abdicate authority
over the case if the farmers it represents are unable to
prove or are barred from presenting evidence that the
money used in the acquisition of UCPB was ill-gotten.
The
Presidential Commission on Good Government estimated the
UCPB shares in 2003 to be worth about P100 billion.
--With Venus Vejerano |
