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By Francis Earl A. Cueto, Reporter
THE Presidential Commission on
Good Government (PCGG) on Wednesday expressed confidence that the
$4-million bank account in the name of the wife and children of
Herminio Disini, golfing buddy and alleged crony of the late
dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is still intact.
Narciso Nario, commissioner for
legal affairs of the PCGG, told reporters in an interview that the
account remains untouched.
The Swiss high court last month
lifted a freeze order imposed in 1986 on a $4-million bank account
in the names of the wife and children of Herminio Disini.
The Sandiganbayan was just
recently informed by Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera, Assistant
Solicitor General John Emmanuel Madamba and Senior State Solicitor
Thelma Lee Raquel-Sadoy that the Swiss Federal Supreme Court issued
a ruling on February 21 granting the Disinis’ motion for the
revocation of the 21-year-old freeze order.
“Our foreign lawyers have not
notified us about the possible withdrawal of the deposit. They are
based there so they should inform us immediately,” Nario said.
PCGG Chairman Camilo Sabio
earlier said that they are prepared to exact every possible legal
means to ensure the immediate return of the freeze order on the
$4-million bank account.
The Disini accounts were under
the names of Disini’s wife, Paciencia Escolin (also the Marcos
family doctor), and children Herminio Angel and Lea.
Assistant Solicitor General Eric
Panga, government counsel in the ill-gotten wealth case against
Disini, said the PCGG—formed in 1986 to recover ill-gotten wealth
amassed by Marcos and his cronies—is still trying to verify if the
bank deposits have been withdrawn.
Disini was accused of amassing
millions of dollars worth of ill-gotten wealth by exploiting his
close relationship with Marcos. The businessman was also indicted
for graft for allegedly pocketing $18 million in illegal commissions
from the Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Burns and Roe for brokering
the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
In a ruling issued August 31,
2006, the Swiss high court gave the PCGG only until December 31,
2006, to secure a final forfeiture verdict from a local court,
saying 20 years should have been enough to prove the Philippine
government’s claim over the bank deposits.
But government lawyers failed to
secure a forfeiture ruling as the Sandiganbayan simply declared the
Disini bank accounts in “custodia legis.” That ruling was deemed
insufficient by the Swiss high court.
Devanadera from the Office of the
Solicitor General further expressed concern that the same thing
could happen to another $8-million account in the name of Roberto
Olanday, brother-in-law of former Marcos social secretary, Fe
Roa-Gimenez.
The Sandiganbayan has ordered the
Olanday account forfeited in favor of the government but the Olanday,
Gimenez and her husband Ignacio Gimenez filed an appeal that remains
pending.
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