The Sandiganbayan has junked two 29-year-old civil cases lodged by the government against late strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr., former First Lady Imelda Marcos, former senator Juan Ponce Enrile, and the late tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., among others in connection with the coco levy funds scam. 

In a resolution dated 6 December, the anti-graft court junked Civil Cases 0033-A and 0033-F, which the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) filed in March and May 1987, respectively, that originally sought to recover ill-gotten wealth allegedly acquired by the respondents and their other cohorts.

Their exoneration follows the PCGG’s decision to withdraw the cases, citing the finality of the previous Supreme Court rulings concerning the same matter. 

Civil Case 0033-A pertains to the supposed anomalous purchase of First United Bank now United Coconut Planter’s Bank (UCPB) by Cojuangco, former chairman and chief executive officer of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and said to be a close associate of Marcos Sr.

Court records showed that Cojuangco acquired 72.2 percent capital stock of the UCPB in 1975 — in cahoots with the Marcos couple, Enrile, and their co-conspirators — by using the coco levy funds, contrary to the law and purposes for which the levy was imposed and collected.

The coco levy was exacted from coconut farmers from 1972 to 1982, in accordance with Marcos Sr.'s order, supposedly to develop the coconut industry with the assurance that farmers would get a share of the investments. 

In December 2001, the SC declared that coco levy are public funds.

Civil Case No. 0033-F, meanwhile, alleged that Cojuangco acquired two blocks of stock purchases of SMC shares using Coco levy funds also allegedly in connivance with his co-respondents. 

The Sandiganbayan recalled that during a hearing on 3 July, none of the defendants raised objections to the withdrawal of the remaining causes of action for damages. The PCGG, it mentioned, also yielded with the SC’s ruling, dispossing the cases with the finality. 

“Plaintiff Republic clearly and unequivocally states that it will no longer pursue the claims for damages in these cases. It is a hornbook rule that it is not the caption of a pleading but the allegations thereat that determines its nature,” the Sandiganbayan stated.

The Civil Cases 0033-A and 0033-F were part of the eight subdivided cases of the initial Civil Case 0033. filed before the Sandiganbayan. 

This original lawsuit, filed in July 1987, was a civil action for the recovery of ill-gotten wealth acquired by the said defendants through the alleged misspent and misappropriation of the coco levy funds. 

Two years after the filing of the case, Marcos Sr. passed away in September 1989 and was since substituted by his son and namesake, President Ferdiand Marcos Jr. Cojuangco also later died in June 2020.