Swiss high court unfreezes $4-M Disini account

The Swiss high court has lifted a freeze order imposed in 1986 on a $4-million bank account in the names of the wife and children of Herminio Disini, golfing buddy and alleged crony of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The Sandiganbayan was informed Tuesday by Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera, Assistant Solicitor General John Emmanuel Madamba and Senior State Solicitor Thelma Lee Raquel-Sadoy that the Swiss Federal Supreme Court issued a ruling last February 21 granting the Disinis’ motion for the revocation of the 21-year-old freeze order. The accounts were under the names of Disini’s wife, Paciencia Escolin (also the Marcos family doctor), and children Herminio Angel and Lea. Assistant Solicitor General Eric Panga, government counsel in the case against Disini, said the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) – formed in 1986 to recover ill-gotten wealth amassed by Marcos and his cronies – is still trying to verify if the bank deposits have been withdrawn. “The problem is, the bank deposits are under the names of Disini’s children who were not named as defendants in the case. Only Herminio Disini was named," Panga explained. Disini was accused of amassing millions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth by exploiting his close relationship with Marcos. The businessman was also indicted for graft for allegedly pocketing $18 million in illegal commissions from the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Burns and Roe for brokering the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. In a ruling issued Aug. 31, 2006, the Swiss high court gave the PCGG only until Dec. 31, 2006 to secure a final forfeiture verdict from a local court, saying 20 years should have been enough to prove the Philippine government's claim over the bank deposits. But government lawyers failed to secure a forfeiture ruling as the Sandiganbayan simply declared the Disini bank accounts in “custodia legis". That ruling was deemed insufficient by the Swiss high court. Devanadera from the Office of the Solicitor-General further expressed concern that the same thing could happen to another $8 million account in the name of Roberto Olanday, brother-in-law of former Marcos social secretary, Fe Roa-Gimenez . The Sandiganbayan has ordered the Olanday account forfeited in favor of the government but the Olanday, Gimenez and her husband Ignacio Gimenez filed an appeal which remains pending. -GMANews.TV