MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan on Wednesday issued subpoenas to former first lady Imelda R. Marcos and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo to testify at the resumption of the ill-gotten wealth trial of taipan Lucio Tans corporations next week.
Acting on the request of state lawyers, the anti-graft courts fifth division summoned Mrs. Marcos and Mr. Romulo to appear on June 3 at 2 p.m.
It also issued a subpoena for former Philippine National Bank president now University of the East Chairman Panfilo O. Domingo.
Lawyers from the Presidential Commission on Good Government and Office of the Solicitor General will present Mrs. Marcos as hostile witness.
Mrs. Marcos was also asked by state lawyers to produce at least nine documents that will pin down taipan Lucio C. Tan in the ill-gotten wealth case.
The documents include deeds of sale executed in 1980 covering shares of stock of six Tan companies sold to Shareholdings, Inc.
The companies are Silangan Holdings, Inc., Foremost Farms, Inc., Fortune Tobacco Corp., Himmel Industries, Inc., Grandspan Development Corp., and Asia Brewery, Inc.
Also sought for production were deeds signed in 1984 assigning shares of stock of Shareholdings to Basic Holdings, Inc., Supreme Holdings, Inc., and Falcon Holdings, Inc.
The government will present Mrs. Marcos to corroborate the testimony of her son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
The younger Marcos earlier testified that his father, President Ferdinand E. Marcos, and Mr. Tan were business partners.
He said the late President acquired around 60% of Mr. Tans businesses by purchasing shares of stock from the taipan, his wife, and business associates using private funds.
Mr. Marcos said his father owned more than half of Shareholdings, the holding company for the six Tan-owned firms.
The government claimed Mr. Tan was a mere nominee of the late strongman in the six companies, thus they form part of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth.
The subpoena for Mr. Romulo required the secretary to produce documents taken by the Department of Foreign Affairs from a Marcos crony for safekeeping, which include the listing of companies where the late president allegedly had interest.
The documents were also used in the ill-gotten wealth cases against other suspected Marcos cronies like Jose Africa, Manuel Nieto, Roberto Benedicto and Potenciano Ilusorio. - BusinessWorld