Govt asks SC to overturn ruling on SMC shares

The government has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to reverse its decision declaring business tycoon Eduardo “Danding" Cojuangco Jr. as the legitimate owner of San Miguel Corporation's 20-percent shares. In a phone interview with GMA News Online on Monday, Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz said his office sent the government's motion for reconsideration by mail last Friday. Even if the high court is yet to receive a copy of the motion for reconsideration, SC spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez said that the appeal by mail already constitutes filing. “The date it is sent is the date it is filed," Marquez said. GMA News Online is yet to receive a copy of the motion for reconsideration by the Office of the Solicitor-General (OSG). The OSG represents government bodies and officials in litigation and other legal matters. In this case, the OSG represents the Philippine Commission on Good Government (PCGG), which is challenging the legality of Cojuangco’s acquisition of the SMC shares which accounts for a 20-percent equity in the diversified food and beverage conglomerate. Last April 12, the Supreme Court ruled that Cojuangco's 20-percent stake in SMS was not ill-gotten and do not form part of the so-called coconut levy fund — the taxes exacted from coconut farmers during the time of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The PCGG had failed to substantiate its claim that Cojuangco acquired those shares illegally, the SC said. The commission had alleged that when Cojuangco acquired the shares in 1983, he — as an officer and board member of the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) — violated his obligations toward the clients under the relationship known as a fiduciary trust. The PCGG then claimed ownership of his 20-percent equity in SMC, saying the shares were bought using the coco levy funds, the same money Cojuangco and Marcos-era officials allegedly used to acquire UCPB and other companies. Fiduciary obligations violated On Monday, two anti-Marcos stalwarts also asked the court to reconsider its April 12 decision, saying it was "unjust, erroneous, and anti-poor." Petitioner-intervenors Jovito Salonga, Wigberto Tañada, as well as coconut farmers' groups claimed that Cojuangco violated his fiduciary duties by acquiring his 20-percent shares through loans from the UCPB and Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) companies. Salonga is a former PCGG chair and Tañada is the son of the late Senator Lorenzo Tañada, a staunch critic of Marcos. Salonga and the Tañadas were allies of former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, who rose to power after the 1986 People Power revolt toppled the Marcos regime. Despite family his ties with the Aquinos, Danding Cojuagco was a known associate of Marcos. In their appeal, the intervenors argued that the contested shares rightfully belong to the government. “Since respondent Cojuangco admitted that the subject SMC shares were purchased from loans and advances obtained by the 14 Holding Companies, and since these 14 Holding Companies belong to the government, and since the loans and/or advances taken by the said 14 Holding Companies from UCPB and the CIIF Companies ‘are still the obligations of the said companies,’ the court a quo should have ruled in the same manner and awarded the subject SMC shares to ‘the government in trust for the ultimate beneficiaries thereof, which are all the coconut farmers,’" read a portion of the 53-page appeal. — PE/VS, GMA News