Sandiganbayan directs Royal Traders to pay government P25M in damages

The Sandiganbayan has ordered the Royal Traders Holding Co. Inc. to pay the Philippine government P25 million in exemplary damages in connection with the bank certificates of the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

According to the anti-graft court's Second Division, the RTHCI, formerly Traders Royal Bank, had consistently refused to pay the face value of peso-and dollar-denominated bank certificates by falsely asserting that the government had no cause of action against it and that the obligations sought had all been paid.

It said the unjustified refusal to pay and the entering into a Purchase and Sale Agreement (PSA) with the Bank of Commerce in 2001 that jeopardized the claims of the republic were clear indications of bad faith. 

Under the PSA, the RTCHI sold to BanCom its assets and liabilities but excluded the claims of the Philippine government.

“The Court rules that RTHCI has acted in a wanted, fraudulent, and malevolent manner for which it is liable to pay exemplary damages to the plaintiff,” Sandiganbayan said in a resolution dated December 16.

The Sandiganbayan, however, said the government was not entitled to attorney's fees since it was represented by the Office of the Solicitor General, the legal counsel of the republic, and the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the agency tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.

In its original decision dated September 24, the court ordered RTHCI to pay compensatory damages of $5.4 million and P96 million, representing the TRB issued bank certificates, with an interest of 12% per annum from February 1993 until all the amounts are fully paid.

The Sandiganbayan said the bank certificates were brought by the Marcoses after they fled to Hawaii after the People Power Revolution in February 1986.

The anti-graft court also maintained it found no sufficient basis for reconveyance to the government of 278,488 shares of stocks in the name of the Royal Bank of Canada, including 81,510 shares as subscription rights.

“Said shares of stocks are not under TRB’s name and hence no transfer can be made,” the court earlier said.

The Sandiganbayan also maintained that it could not hold BanCom liable with RTHCI because the execution of the PSA was declared valid. — VBL, GMA News