By Marcus Suner

In a resolution dated January 25, 2023, the Sandiganbayan junked Former First Lady Imelda Marcos and Senator Irene “Imee” Marcos-Araneta’s petition to take back government-seized assets under the reason of lack of merit.

Penned by Associate Justice Michael Frederick L. Musngi, with the concurrence of Associate Justices Maria Thesesa V. Mendoza-Arcega, and Maryann E. Corpus-Mañalac, both of which were also involved in previous proceedings, the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division detailed in a 40-page resolution that the Marcoses cannot recover the properties already declared “ill-gotten”.

This includes companies, land holdings, properties, vehicle assets, media outlets, and hundreds of millions of pesos worth of stocks and deposits into numerous companies and banks, both domestic and international.

The resolution also seeks to “clarify” the status of pertinent assets and properties listed by the Marcoses, while merely noting down the properties without sequestration orders, properties under the Presidential Commission on Good Government, and properties under full control and supervision of the Marcos family.

Marcos and Marcos-Araneta based their petition on a previous 2019 ruling by the Sandiganbayan, wherein it junked Civil Case No. 0002, pertaining to the PHP 200-billion worth of assets and properties illegally acquired by the Marcos family on a prima facie (first impression) presumption.

Following this, the Marcoses said that the freeze and sequestration orders on the assets and properties could now be lifted.

The two said that they have a “good and valid reason” to ask for a writ of execution of their assets, praying that the government return these assets “considering that there was allegedly no evidence that this trust account was ill-gotten.”. 

They also detailed how they “suffered greatly mentally and emotionally” during the three-decade-long period on the decision, claiming that the dissipation of the seized assets caused them “unjust and unreasonable deprivation of their proprietary rights”, despite the two not detailing how the assets were dissipated in the first place.

As of writing, none of the Marcoses has yet to make a public statement on the matter.

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