OSG reviews De Venecia's Landoil case with PCGG

Government lawyers have started reviewing a 1988 compromise deal between a company owned by Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to find out if the agreement violated laws. Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera told reporters on Monday that her office had started studying the terms of agreement between De Venecia’s Landoil Resources Corp., and the PCGG. "It has to be studied. It is a request for us to review the compromise agreement executed by Landoil and that there are certain allegations that some provisions were not complied with," she said. In the 1970s, Landoil obtained a $120-million foreign currency loan from the Philippine Export Guaranty. The PCGG classified the loan as "behest" because 45 percent of Landoil's outstanding capital stock came from former President Ferdinand Marcos. The commission said Marcos granted the loan to finance construction projects undertaken by Landoil in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya, and other Middle East countries, and in North Africa. In July 1988, De Venecia entered into an agreement with the PCGG that Landoil would pay back the $120-million loan. However, De Venecia allegedly failed to comply with the deal. Last November 22, PCGG Chairman Camilo Sabio, in a letter to Devanadera, said that the civil case that was put on hold at the Sandiganbayan could be reinstated after De Venecia failed to honor the deal with the commission. The case was filed by the government against De Venecia following the ouster of the strongman in 1986. The government took the said legal action in a bid to recover the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses. But Devanadera dismissed speculations that the review of the agreement had something to do with efforts to ease out De Venecia. "It is still under study. We are not releasing anything that we have not well studied. In due time we will. It is said there, the Speaker then was in Landoil. Maybe that is the thing that makes it very interesting. We have to study before we can come out (with our recommendations)," she said. - GMANews.TV