Anyone who writes a treatise on the efficacy and operational soundness of the Philippine judicial system must present as Exhibit A the legal battle between the Philippine government and the public officials who allegedly misappropriated the proceeds of the levy mandated by the Presidential decree creating the Coconut Industry Development Fund. I say this because around three decades have elapsed since the Supreme Court, in one of the four coconut levy-related cases elevated to it shortly after the EDSA Revolution, declared that the coconut levy funds were “imbued with a public character.”
Finally, after all that time, the civil cases filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) against former Minister of National Defense (and former Senator) Juan Ponce Enrile, former San Miguel Corporation chairman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. and a number of coconut-industry-related individuals – Cases No. 33-B and 33-D – will be going to trial.
On May 9, 2017, in a 13-page resolution, the Second Division of the Sandiganbayan affirmed its June 7, 2016 decision calling for full trials of the two cases.
Addressing the PCGG-OSG prayer for a partial summary judgment – there are six other coconut levy cases awaiting its consideration, the Sandiganbayan said: “(T)he remedies of summary judgment and/or judgment on the pleadings are improper because the defendants raised several arguments that tender issues that can be resolved only in a full-blown trial ….. A summary judgment can be rendered only when there are no questions of fact in issue or where the material allegations of the pleading are not disputed.”
PCGG and OSG had petitioned for automatic reconveyance to the government of the companies involved – Cocofed Marketing Corporation (covered by Case No. 33-B) and United Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corporation (covered by Case No. 33-D) – on the basis of the Supreme Court declaration that the two corporations were established with coconut levy funds, i.e., public funds.
“Even if the coconut levy funds are classified as public funds,” said the Sandiganbayan, “this will not automatically result in the reconveyance of the subject companies to the government (because) the defendants made denials of the plaintiff’s material allegations and correspondingly raised genuine issues on the matter.”
The six other coconut-levy-related cases pending before the Sandiganbayan involve allegations with coconut levy funds of acquisition of equity interests in a number of major companies, including San Miguel Corporation and United Coconut Planters Bank.
Should the government appeal the latest Sandiganbayan ruling? The Supreme Court declaration that the coconut levy funds are public in character, coupled with the fact that these coconut levy cases have been outstanding for far too long, dictate a negative answer. Let the cases finally go to trial.
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