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Sandiganbayan upholds evidence vs Cuenca


The graft court has upheld evidence of graft versus former construction magnate Rodolfo Cuenca, paving the way for a trial to help the government seize alleged ill-gotten wealth amassed by the businessman and his associates. Government lawyers are seeking P50 billion in moral damages and P1 billion in exemplary damages on top of unspecified claim of actual and temperate damages against the defendants, which also include former First Lady Imelda Marcos and her family’s assets. Cuenca is the founder of the the Construction and Development Corp. of the Philippines (CDCP), a huge construction company during the administration of the late president Ferdinand Marcos. When its debts ballooned in the early 80s, Marcos transformed all CDCP debts into public sector debts with his $400M bail-out program. Of CDCP's P12.3 billion foreign and domestic loan exposure as of 1992, the government was able to recover only P4 billion while the remaining P8.3 billion was passed on to taxpayers. The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), an agency formed to recover wealth amassed by the late dictator, claims Marcos was a co-owner of CDCP. In a 23-page Resolution promulgated last October 5, the Sandiganbayan Third Division denied Cuenca's demurrer to evidence which prayed for the dismissal of the government lawsuit. "(T)he issuances of former President Marcos offered in evidence by the plaintiff and admitted by the Court …benefited the corporation identified with defendant Rodolfo M. Cuenca and alleged to have been used as fronts, dummies, shields and artifices. Insofar as defendant Cuenca is concerned, we find the existence of greater weight of evidence or probability of the truth of the allegations constituting plaintiff’s causes of action against said defendant,' the court declared. Evidence against Cuenca included official acts of Marcos which was admitted by the court by judicial notice. Among these were presidential decrees and letters of intent approving the franchise of CDCP; extending said franchise to 30 years; and directing government financial institutions to guarantee the firm’s loans; and converting CDCP’s loan obligations to shares of common stock that government financial institution's subscribed to. However the court cleared two other defendants named by the Presidential Commission on Good Government in the lawsuit – former Philippine National Bank president Panfilo O. Domingo and former CDCP treasurer Nora O. Vinluan – for insufficiency of evidence. - GMANews.TV

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