MANILA – The government should exhaust all the remedies following the Sandiganbayan’s dismissal of another forfeiture case against the Marcos family involving millions of ill-gotten wealth, veteran human rights lawyer Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno said.
Diokno, who chairs the Free Legal Assistance Group, said in a television interview that the government must revisit all the charges against the Marcoses.
“I think the government should revisit all of the pending cases against the Marcoses and find out what is going wrong and do something about it,” Diokno said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.
In a decision that was released publicly on Friday, the Sandiganbayan 4th Division dismissed Civil Case No. 0007 involving the forfeiture of an estimated P267-million ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses through spouses Fe and Ignacio Gimenez.
The anti-graft court in its verdict has granted the demurrer to evidence filed by the Gimenezes for “insufficiency of evidence” as there were only photocopied documents as pieces of evidence and proof that money was siphoned off to foreign countries.
The dismissal did not sit well with Diokno as he questioned the Sandiganbayan for granting of Gimenezes demurrer to evidence only now when the case was filed in 1987.
“Why did it take the government this long to prosecute and for the court to decide the case?” Diokno said. “We have to get to the bottom of this. Anong nangyari du’n sa mga dokumento na ‘yun? Bakit hindi napresenta yung mga original?”
Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement that the Malacañang Palace respects the verdict of Sandiganbayan to dismiss another Marcos case.
“The Administration does not interfere with the judiciary. The rule of law must always prevail in courts regardless of who are the parties. Their decision must be accorded respect and obedience,” Panelo added.
This is the third loss of the Presidential Commission on Good Governance and the Office of the Solicitor General this year.
In August, the Sandiganbayan Second Division also dismissed for insufficient evidence the P102-billion forfeiture case against the late former President Ferdinand Marcos, former First Lady Imelda Marcos, and other cronies.
Two months later, the Marcoses scored another legal victory against the government after the Sandiganbayan dismissed the P1.052-billion civil case against former Ambassador Bienvenido Tantoco Sr. and some of his relatives, who allegedly served as Marcos dummies, due to insufficiency of evidence./PN
