UNDER ordinary circumstances, it would have been funny were it not for the fact that the case has been pending for 38 years and involves hundreds of millions in disputed assets.
The Sandiganbayan has recalled its March 20, 2025 resolution declaring defendant Josephine Ramirez in default for failing to file her answer to the complaint in Civil Case No. 0035, an ill-gotten wealth case filed way back in 1987.
Ramirez, as it turned out, had filed an Answer with Compulsory Counterclaim dated January 16, 1989 with the Sandiganbayan.
Plaintiff Republic of the Philippines, represented by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), also filed its Reply to the defendant’s answer, at the same time submitting a motion for the dismissal of the counterclaim.
But in the passing of time – 27 years by the court’s count – Ramirez, the PCGG, and the Sandiganbayan forgot what transpired.
In 2016, government lawyers filed a motion asking the court to declare several defendants in default, including Ramirez.
Instead of setting the plaintiff straight, Ramirez filed a Comment/Opposition and sought dismissal of the government’s motion. She was declared in default, which would have barred her from presenting her own evidence or from cross-examining witnesses, giving the plaintiff a huge advantage.
But in its March 31, 2025 resolution, the anti-graft court’s Sixth Division notified the parties that its review of the records uncovered the 1989 answer filed by Ramirez.
“Although defendant Ramirez did not, and has manifested that she has no intention to, file her Answer to the Third Amended Complaint, the records show that she already filed her Answer With Compulsory counterclaim to the Expanded Amended Complaint,” the Sandiganbayan said.
With the discovery of the now 36-year-old answer, the court said there is no longer any ground to hold the defendant in default.
The case can now move forward with the presentation of the plaintiff’s evidence 38 years since it was originally filed against the late President Ferdinand Marcos, his widow, former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos, the late Ambassador Benjamin Romualdez, and corporate defendants Palm Avenue Holding Co. Inc. and Palm Avenue Realty Development Corp. (Palm Companies).
Ramirez was implicated based on allegations that she acted as a dummy or front for Romualdez in the Philippine Journalists, Inc. (PJI) as a former legal counsel of the media company and as a stockholder and director of the Manila World Traders Corp.
She had pointed out that on October 18, 2017, the Fifth Division had issued a pronouncement that the PJI does not form part of the alleged ill-gotten wealth of Romualdez.
Ramirez said this was enough basis for the court to dismiss the case against her outright for lack of cause of action.
