Sandiganbayan: PCGG failed to prove how Marcos, Ver, Ongpin got rich from ‘Binondo central bank’

The second division of the anti-graft court, Sandiganbayan, dismissed for “lack of evidence” the P50 billion damage suit the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) filed 24 years ago against the late President Ferdinand Marcos, former First Lady now Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos, former Trade Minister Roberto Ongpin, former Armed Forces chief-of-staff Fabian C. Ver and 18 others.   The 69-page decision, penned by Associate Justice Samuel R. Martires, said  government lawyers failed to prove that the defendants received protection money from the black market dollar trading operations allegedly run by eight Chinese and Filipino-Chinese businessmen-members of the so-called Binondo Central Bank.   “How defendants Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, Fabian Ver and Roberto Ongpin… ‘abused their power to enrich themselves’ …the complaint does not show,” the court said.   “There is no evidence to prove that these defendants received money by way of kickbacks, commission, gifts or percentage from the capitalists of the Binondo Central Bank. Indeed, plaintiff Republic failed to present evidence to prove its claims,” the court ruling also said.   Associate Justices Napoleon E. Inoturan and Teresita V. Diaz-Baldos, division chairperson, concurred.   The court also ordered the lifting and cancellation of sequestration orders issued against the properties of all the accused in connection with the case.   The PCGG had claimed that the Marcos couple ordered Ongpin and Ver to roundup the country’s biggest black market dollar traders in 1984 and organized them into the Binondo Central Bank (BCB).   The PCGG said the BCB engaged bought US dollars and stashed them abroad and that the Marcos couple, Ongpin and Ver purportedly received protection fees paid by BCB members through “dummies, nominees or agents.”   Also implicated in the alleged scheme were Ver’s children, Irwin, Rexor, Wyrlo, Helma Ver-Tuason, and Faida Ver-Resureccion, along with then Presidential Security Command legal officer Balbino San Diego and lawyer Arturo Pacificador. Co-defendants were alleged BCB members Jimmy Chua a.k.a. Chua Hang, Go Pok a.k.a. Tan Guat, Catalino Coo, Raffy Chua, Peter Uy, Benito Peñalosa a.k.a. Chua Se Tat, Yao So a.k.a. Sio Lim, and Wilson Chua a.k.a. Chua Tiong Kian. — ELR, GMA News