Sandiganbayan asked to rule on disputed Marcos jewels

The government has asked the Sandiganbayan Special Division to resolve the pending ownership dispute of one of the three jewelry collections of former First Lady Imelda Marcos.   In a six-page motion, the government — through the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Office of the Solicitor General — said judgment on the ownership dispute “is ripe for judicial determination and disposition.”   The motion was dated October 24, but a copy of it was only made available to the media on Thursday, November 15.   In the motion, the PCGG-OSG pointed out that in a ruling on December 29, 2010, the anti-graft court denied the Omnibus Motion of the Marcoses claiming that the government motion was improper because proceedings in Civil Case no. 0141 has been “closed and terminated” when the Sandiganbayan denied the first motion for partial summary judgment in 1997.     Civil Case no. 0141, filed in 1987, involved the five Marcos Swiss foundations: Aguamina, Avertina, Palmy, Vibur and Maler and other assets of the Marcos family, including the so-called Malacañang Collection and the Arelma foundation.   PCGG-OSG noted that it has already filed its memorandum on October 23, 2009, and that the defendants followed suit on October 26, 2009.   Government lawyers said there is no longer any obstacle to a final resolution of the ownership dispute.   In a 1991 appraisal, the Malacañang Collection — composed of smaller and less expensive pieces that the family left behind when they abandoned Malacañang in a haste on February 26, 1986 — was estimated to be worth between $110,055 and $153,089.   On the other hand, the so-called Roumeliotes Collection, composed of 60 pieces of more extravagant jewelry and loose gemstones, was seized from Greek national Demetriou Roumeliotes on March 1, 1986 at the Manila International Airport as he was about to fly abroad.   The Hawaii collection consists of jewelry confiscated from the Marcos luggage when they landed at the Honolulu International Airport after their departure from the Philippines in February 1986.   According to the petitioners, the jewelry collection should go the government because the sum of the Marcos assets previously forfeited by the courts were already well beyond their lawful income of $304,372.43 in 1986. — KBK, GMA News