Gov't seeks forfeiture of 60% of nine Lucio Tan companies

The government has moved to forfeit 60 percent of tycoon Lucio Tan’s nine companies through a petition filed Tuesday by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) at the Sandiganbayan.

The PCGG alleged that Tan’s assets were part of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth based on the declaration of former First Lady Imelda Marcos that her husband was the actual owner of 60 percent of companies held in trust by Tan, his family and business associates.

Tan, a known ally of former President Marcos, has a personal net worth of US$ 1.5 billion. As of 2006, Tan is the country’s second richest person and the 451st richest in the world.

The nine companies covered by PCGG’s claim are Fortune Tobacco Corp., Asia Brewery, Inc., Allied Banking Corp., Foremost Farms, Himmel Industries, Inc., Grandspan Development Corp., Silangan Holdings, Inc., Dominium Realty and Construction Corp and Shareholdings, Inc.


In the 29-page petition, PCGG said that Mrs. Marcos’ declaration contained in her "Amended Answer with Counterclaim and Compulsory Cross-Claim" dated November 19, 2001 was an admission of the basic allegation in the government’s complaint.

In the said document, Marcos narrated that "sometime in the late 1980s", Tan and her husband agreed to consolidate their assets under Shareholdings Inc.

After the consolidation, the two allegedly organized three more holding companies - Basic Holdings Corp., Supreme Holdings Corp., and Falcon Holdings Corp., - "in the middle of 1984" for the purpose of segregating their beneficial ownerships.

Tan’s assets were supposedly handled by Basic Holdings while the Marcos interests were handled by Falcon and Supreme Holdings.

“In express recognition of the beneficial ownership of FM (Ferdinand Marcos), the incorporators of both Falcon and Supreme executed and delivered to FM blank Deeds of Assignment," Marcos pointed out in her Answer.

After her husband’s death in 1989, Marcos said she demanded that Shareholdings and Tan deliver the 60 percent holdings to her as surviving spouse and heir but they reportedly ignored her.

Government lawyers argued that based on the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of Republic of the Philippines vs. Sandiganbayan (G.R. No. 152154) dated July 15, 2003, the total lawful income of the Marcos couple from 1965 to 1986 was only P2,319,583.33 ($304,372.43).

Thus, the Marcos interests in Tan’s firms must be declared part of their ill-gotten wealth.

“In fine, it can be deduced in the averments and admission of defendant Imelda Marcos that she and defendant Ferdinand Marcos concealed their beneficial ownership/ interest in the subject corporations through their dummies, agents, or nominees in the persons of defendant Lucio Tan and the other defendants," lawyers from the PCGG and the Office of the Solicitor General pointed out. -GMANews.TV