Anti-graft court junks another civil case on Marcos wealth

THE COUNTRY’S anti-graft court, citing “defects” in evidence, has junked a P267-million civil forfeiture case against two former business associates of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos and his wife Imelda, who were accused of posing as dummies for the illegal acquisition of properties and public funds.

The Sandiganbayan Fourth Division, in a 37-page resolution dated Oct. 14, dismissed the case against spouses Fe R. Gimenez and Ignacio B. Gimenez due to insufficient testimonial evidence and private documents that were only photocopied and unauthenticated.

“Considering the defects present in almost all of the pieces of evidence that were submitted by the Republic, this Court finds that the Republic has failed to discharge its burden and so rules that the respective demurrers of the Spouses Gimenez should be granted,” read the resolution.

The Gimenez couple filed separate demurrers in April 2018, pointing out “critical defects” on the documentary evidence by the complainant, which is represented by the Presidential Commission on Good Government and the Office of the Solicitor General.

This the third time that the anti-graft court junked an ill-gotten wealth case against the Marcoses and their associates.

Last August, the Sandiganbayan Second Division rejected for insufficient evidence a government lawsuit filed 30 years ago seeking to recover P102 billion of alleged ill-gotten wealth of the dictator, his family and their associates.

Early this month, the same court also also dismissed for insufficient evidence a 31-year-old lawsuit accusing the Marcos couple of using dummies to amass more than P1 billion in ill-gotten assets.

In the case against the Gimenez couple, Fe was accused of participating in the transfer of “millions of dollars of government funds into several accounts in her name in foreign countries,” disbursing these funds to her co-defendants, and “acted as a conduit” of the Marcoses in the purchase of expensive works of art and properties in New York, USA.

Her husband, on the other hand, was accused of acting as a dummy of the Marcoses in corporations such as Allied Banking Corp. — Vince Angelo C. Ferreras