BUYERS, beware.
The court can compel transfer to the government of any property forfeited as ill-gotten wealth even after the buyer had already paid its value in full.
In a resolution issued last July 28, the Sandiganbayan denied a motion filed by Benito Dy asking the property he purchased 24 years ago in Claveria, Cagayan be exempted from a writ of execution against the forfeited assets of the late businessman Alfonso Lim Sr., a crony of the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos.
In its ruling, the anti-graft court said the government has rightful prior claim over the property in question, a parcel of land in Claveria, Cagayan covered by OCT No. 1107(s), even if Dy had purchased the same lot at a public auction way back on December 12, 1997.
The resolution was penned by Associate Justice and Second Division chairperson Oscar C. Herrera Jr., with Associate Justices Michael Frederick L. Musngi and Arthur O. Malabaguio concurring.
Based on a December 14, 2015 decision of the Sandiganbayan in Civil Case No. 0030, the land was declared part of the ill-gotten wealth of Lim Sr. and forfeited in favor of the government, along with several other assets, including hundreds of hectares of land in Rizal and Batangas.
The court said Lim used his connections to Marcos to amass ill-gotten wealth by securing more than 533,880 hectares of timber concessions — way beyond the maximum allowable area of 100,000 hectares set under the 1973 Constitution.
“So Influential was Lim Sr. that he and Taggat and sister companies received certain timber-related benefits without the knowledge, let alone approval, of the MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources),” the court pointed out in its 2015 decision.
Based on records obtained by court sheriffs, the two Rizal properties were measured at 4.96 hectares and 56.7 hectares but were already sold in 2011 by the Rizal provincial government to a property developer due to non-payment of taxes.
The Batangas property with an area of 129.15 hectares remains in the name of Lim based on a verification made by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) in 2018.
On the other hand, four properties in Claveria, Cagayan measuring 8.1 hectares, 6 hectares, 2 hectares, and 0.82 hectare were still listed in the name of Taggat Industries.
Despite Dy having paid for the land, the court said the property must revert back to the government.
“It should be noted that the subject property was sequestered and in custodia legis during the time it was sold at the public auction as the same is part of defendants’ ill-gotten wealth,” the Sandiganbayan pointed out. “Mr. Dy is bound to the decision dated 14 December 2015 of this Honorable Court and the subject property should be delivered to the plaintiff.”
The buyer was told that he should have heeded the Notice of Lis Pendens annotated at the back of the property title as a warning that the land he is trying to buy was encumbered being subject of a pending trial.
“It appears that indeed, a Notice of Lis Pendens has already been annotated in OCT No. 01107 … even before it was purchased by Mr. Dy. The annotation serves as constructive notice to any purchaser of the pendency of the action binding him to its outcome,” the Sandiganbayan added.
