MANILA –The Marcoses scored another court victory. The Sandiganbayan dismissed the P200 billion civil suit filed by the government against them for lack of evidence.
In a decision released on Monday, the anti-graft court’s 4th division said that Civil Suit No. 0002 was dismissed “for failure of the plaintiff to prove its allegations by preponderance of evidence.”
Among the respondents of the dismissed case were former President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda, their children Irene and Ferdinand Jr. and a certain Constante Rubio.
The 58-page decision was penned by Division Chairperson Alex Quiroz, with the concurrence of Associate Justices Maria Theresa Mendoza-Arcega and Maryann Corpus-Manalac.
The case was filed by the Office of the Solicitor General in 1987 and was amended in 1990.
Apart from P200 billion damages for the recovery of an estimated P250 million ill-gotten wealth, the Presidential Commission on Good Government had also sought P50 billion in moral damages, P1 billion exemplary damages, and attorneys’ fees.
This is the fifth time in the last five months that the Marcoses were victorious on an ill-gotten wealth case filed by the prosecutors against them./PN
