Sandiganbayan junks civil case linked to coco levy funds

THE Philippines’ anti-graft court has dismissed a long-running civil case involving the alleged misuse of coconut levy funds against the relatives and business associates of the late Eduardo M. Cojuangco, Jr. due to inordinate delay in the proceedings.

In a 14-page resolution dated March 17, the Sandiganbayan Second Division granted the motion to dismiss filed by Rafael Abello, Enrique Cojuangco, Marcos Cojuangco, and Agricultural Investors, Inc., saying the 38-year delay since the 1987 filing left the case at pre-trial stage for decades and was “unreasonably excessive by any standard.”

The tribunal said that the circumstances of the remaining defendants were substantially similar to those of the late Mr. Cojuangco, whose version of the case was ordered dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2021, and that the same legal conclusion must apply to the remaining parties to ensure judicial certainty. It also rejected the prosecution’s claim of waiver.

“The renunciation of a constitutional right must be positively demonstrated,” Presiding Justice Geraldine Faith A. Econg said in the resolution. “The implied waiver of such right cannot be presumed. Mere silence of the holder of the right should not be easily construed as surrender thereof.”

“The defendants have been put under a cloud of anxiety, suspicion, and often, hostility as the case loomed over them,” the court said, adding that “The prolonged litigation of the case resulted in the defendants incurring significant fees for legal representation,” and said the state failed to justify the nearly four-decade delay. — Erika Mae P. Sinaking