(Due to its timeliness, we yield this space to the statement of CARMMA or the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law. – Ed.)
THE DISMISSAL of the coco levy graft case against Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, a Board member of the United Coconut Planters Bank and Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s former defense and justice secretary during martial law, and four other cronies is a grave insult to coconut farmers who were squeezed dry and fed empty promises by the martial law regime. The coconut farmers have yet to benefit from a single centavo of the coco levy funds.
We view the negligence of government graft investigators as among the main reasons behind the dismissal of a multi-million peso graft case. The 1990 graft case was about the transfer in 1983 of P840 million in coco levy funds then deposited at UCPB to Agricultural Investors Inc., a business owned by a Marcos crony.
A ruling dated January 16, 2023 by the Supreme Court’s First Division but disclosed only on February 8, ordered the dismissal of the case, saying that the eight-year period that had elapsed before the Ombudsman concluded the preliminary investigation violated the accused’s right to speedy trial.
The coco levy fund comprises taxes imposed by the government on coconut farmers during the martial law years, on the pretext that the funds collected would be used to develop the coconut industry. But the monies collected actually ended up in private businesses owned by Marcos cronies. The entire fund is currently worth at least P100 billion.
It is outrageous that after seven years of failing to conclude the preliminary investigation of the case, no less than the Ombudsman’s graft investigation officer himself moved to have the case dismissed for having exceeded the prescription period. The Ombudsman ended up recommending the case’s dismissal as far back as 1998.
With such negligence, the case’s dismissal was a foregone conclusion. The Ombudsman’s graft investigators seemingly moved at a snail’s pace without even bothering to think how their excruciating slowness would be detrimental to the welfare of the millions of coconut farmers who could have benefited from the coco levy funds, had this been restored to them, the rightful owners.
Unfortunately, recovering ill-gotten wealth from the Marcoses and their dummies and cronies has always been an uphill battle, and more so now that there is another Marcos in Malacañang. Despite this, there must be no let-up in the Filipino people’s perseverance to seek justice and accountability for the grandiose thievery and other grave violations of the people’s rights that were perpetrated during the martial law years.
