THE government ended up holding an empty bag after one of eight 36-year-old coconut levy cases was thrown out by the Sandiganbayan on the ground that the Republic of the Philippines failed to present its evidence more than two decades after pre-trial was set.
In a 20-page resolution issued on May 16, 2023, the anti-graft court’s Second Division dismissed Civil Case No. 0033-B against Coconut Producers Federation Inc. (Cocofed), Coconut Investment Co. (CIC), and Cocofed Marketing Corp. (Cocomark).
Civil Case No. 0033-B was one of the eight subdivided coconut levy cases out of the original complaint filed on July 31, 1987.
The sheer number of companies and individuals involved, as well as the interlocking interests of the firms funded by the coconut levy funds, prompted the chopping up of the main complaint into manageable bites.
It worked for some of the subdivided cases like Civil Case No. 0033-A involving the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and Civil Case 0033-F involving 27 percent of San Miguel Corporation. The government won both cases.
For Civil Case No. 0033-B, however, the system failed — badly.
Despite pendency in court for 36 years since the filing of the original complaint and 24 years since being separated from seven other cases, it did not see even a single day of trial.
“Given the inordinate delay of 24 to 36 years of the plaintiff in concluding the pre-trial and then incessantly failing to proceed to trial proper, and given its clear failure to provide sufficient justification thereof, the civil case filed against movants should be abated and dismissed,” the Sandiganbayan declared.
Associate Justice Arthur O. Malabaguio penned the resolution with the concurrence of Associate Justices Oscar C. Herrera Jr. and Edgardo M. Caldona.
The court anchored its ruling on the April 28, 2021 decision of the Supreme Court in Eduardo M. Cojuangco Jr. vs Sandiganbayan and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), which declared that the 32-year pendency of six of the sub-divided coconut levy cases against the petitioner violated his constitutional right to due process and speedy disposition of cases.
Cocofed, CIC, and Cocomark invoked these same pronouncements of the Supreme Court in their motion to dismiss filed on November 18, 2022.
In granting the motion, the Sandiganbayan highlighted the fact that the case was set for pre-trial on March 16, 2000 but this was reset three more times until the last on November 13, 2000, when no government lawyer showed up.
“Thus, more than two decades have already passed yet no conclusion of pre-trial proceedings or even initiation of the next pre-trial schedule has been issued. Obviously, the delay is beyond the time periods provided in any of the rules applicable to the Sandiganbayan,” it pointed out.
The complaint in the dismissed case alleged that Cojuangco created and funded various corporations including Cocofed, CIC, and Cocomark in collaboration with several individual defendants as a means to misappropriate a substantial part of the coconut levy funds and amass ill-gotten wealth.
But instead of presenting evidence in a full-blown trial, the government asked the court to resolve the dispute by summary judgment on the ground that the Supreme Court had already pronounced that the coconut levy funds were prima facie public funds.
The Sandiganbayan rejected this recourse in a resolution on June 2, 2016 and again on appeal on May 9, 2017.
