Principle of immutability of judgments

"Xxx.

Petitioner Marcos, Jr. argues that there are genuine issues of fact as borne by the Pre-trial Order, Supplemental Pre-trial Order, and the Pre-trial Briefs of the parties. He laments that the Republic was unable to meet the necessary averments under the forfeiture law, which requires a comparison between the approximate amount of property acquired during the incumbency of Ferdinand Marcos, and the total amount of governmental salaries and other earnings.32 While the Petition contained an analysis of Ferdinand Marcos’s income from 1965 to 1986 (during his incumbency), there was purportedly no mention of the latter’s income from 1940 to 1965 when he was a practicing lawyer, congressman and senator; other earnings until the year 1985; and real properties that were auctioned off to satisfy the estate tax assessed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.33

Petitioner Marcos, Jr. implores us herein to revisit and reverse our earlier ruling in the Swiss Deposits Decision and argues that the pronouncements in that case are contrary to law and its basic tenets. The Court in that case allegedly applied a lenient standard for the Republic, but a strict one for the Marcoses. He finds fault in the ruling therein which was grounded on public policy and the ultimate goal of the forfeiture law, arguing that public policy is better served if the Court gave more importance to the substantive rights of the Marcoses.

In accordance with the principle of immutability of judgments, petitioners can no longer use the present forum to assail the ruling in the Swiss Deposits Decision, which has become final and executory. Aside from the fact that the method employed by petitioner is improper and redundant, we also find no cogent reason to revisit the factual findings of the Sandiganbayan in Civil Case No. 0141, which this Court in the Swiss Deposits Decision found to be thorough and convincing. In the first place, using a Rule 45 Petition to question a judgment that has already become final is improper, especially when it seeks reconsideration of factual issues, such as the earnings of the late President from 1940 to 1965 and the existence of real properties that petitioners claim were auctioned off to pay the taxes. Secondly, petitioners never raised the existence of these earnings and real properties at the outset and never mentioned these alleged other incomes by way of defense in their Answer. In their Answer, and even in their subsequent pleadings, they merely made general denials of the allegations without stating facts admissible in evidence at the hearing. As will be discussed later, both the Sandiganbayan and the Supreme Court found that the Marcoses’ unsupported denials of matters patently and necessarily within their knowledge were inexcusable, and that a trial would have served no purpose at all.34

R.A. 1379 provides that whenever any public officer or employee has acquired during his incumbency an amount of property manifestly out of proportion to his salary as such public officer and to his other lawful income, said property shall be presumed prima facie to have been unlawfully acquired.35 The elements that must concur for this prima facie presumption to apply are the following: (1) the offender is a public officer or employee; (2) he must have acquired a considerable amount of money or property during his incumbency; and (3) said amount is manifestly out of proportion to his salary as such public officer or employee and to his other lawful income and income from legitimately acquired property.

Thus, in determining whether the presumption of ill-gotten wealth should be applied, the relevant period is incumbency, or the period in which the public officer served in that position. The amount of the public officer’s salary and lawful income is compared against any property or amount acquired for that same period. In the Swiss Deposits Decision, the Court ruled that petitioner Republic was able to establish the prima facie presumption that the assets and properties acquired by the Marcoses "were manifestly and patently disproportionate to their aggregate salaries as public officials."36

For a petition to flourish under the forfeiture law, it must contain the following:

(a) The name and address of the respondent.

(b) The public officer or employment he holds and such other public offices or employment which he has previously held.

(c) The approximate amount of property he has acquired during his incumbency in his past and present offices and employments.

(d) A description of said property, or such thereof as has been identified by the Solicitor General.

(e) The total amount of his government salary and other proper earnings and incomes from legitimately acquired property, and

(f) Such other information as may enable the court to determine whether or not the respondent has unlawfully acquired property during his incumbency.37 (Emphasis supplied)

Petitioners claim that the Republic failed to comply with subparagraphs c, d, and e above, because the latter allegedly never took into account the years when Ferdinand Marcos served as a war veteran with back pay, a practicing lawyer, a trader and investor, a congressman and senator. We find this claim to be a haphazard rehash of what has already been conclusively determined by the Sandiganbayan and the Supreme Court in the Swiss Deposits Decision. The alleged "receivables from prior years" were without basis, because Marcos never had a known law office nor any known clients, and neither did he file any withholding tax certificate that would prove the existence of a supposedly profitable law practice before he became President. As discussed in the Swiss Deposits Decision:

The Solicitor General made a very thorough presentation of its case for forfeiture:

x x x x x x x x x

4. Respondent Ferdinand E. Marcos (now deceased and represented by his Estate/Heirs) was a public officer for several decades continuously and without interruption as Congressman, Senator, Senate President and President of the Republic of the Philippines from December 31, 1965 up to his ouster by direct action of the people of EDSA on February 22-25, 1986.

5. Respondent Imelda Romualdez Marcos (Imelda, for short) the former First Lady who ruled with FM (Ferdinand Marcos) during the 14-year martial law regime, occupied the position of Minister of Human Settlements from June 1976 up to the peaceful revolution in February 22-25, 1986. She likewise served once as a member of the Interim Batasang Pambansa during the early years of martial law from 1978 to 1984 and as Metro Manila Governor in concurrent capacity as Minister of Human Settlements.1âwphi1

x x x x x x x x x

11. At the outset, however, it must be pointed out that based on the Official Report of the Minister of Budget, the total salaries of former President Marcos as President from 1966 to 1976 was ₱ 60,000 a year and from 1977 to 1985, ₱ 100,000 a year; while that of the former First Lady, Imelda R. Marcos, as Minister of Human Settlements from June 1976 to February 22-25, 1986 was ₱ 75,000 a year.38

The Sandiganbayan found that neither the late Ferdinand Marcos nor petitioner Imelda Marcos filed any Statement of Assets and Liabilities, as required by law, from which their net worth could be determined. Coupled with the fact that the Answer consisted of general denials and a standard plea of "lack of knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations" – what the Court characterized as "foxy replies" and mere pretense – fairness dictates that what must be considered as lawful income should only be the accumulated salaries of the spouses and what are shown in the public documents they submitted, such as their Income Tax Return (ITR) and their Balance Sheets. The amounts representing the combined salaries of the spouses were admitted by petitioner Imelda Marcos in paragraph 10 of her Answer, and reflected in the Certification dated May 27, 1986 issued by then Minister of Budget and Management Alberto Romulo:

Ferdinand E. Marcos, as President
1966-1976 at ₱ 60,000/year ₱ 660,000
1977-1984 at ₱ 100,000/year 800,000
1985 at ₱ 110,000/year 110,000
₱ 1,570,00


Imelda R. Marcos, as Minister
June 1976-1985 at ₱ 75,000/year ₱ 718,000


In addition to their accumulated salaries from 1966 to 1985 are the Marcos couple's combined salaries from January to February 1986 in the amount of ₱ 30,833.33. Hence, their total accumulated salaries amounted to ₱ 2,319,583.33. Converted to U.S. dollars on the basis of the corresponding peso-dollar exchange rates prevailing during the applicable period when said salaries were received, the total amount had an equivalent value of $304,372.43.39

The date contained in the ITRs and Balance Sheets filed by the Marcoses are summarized in Schedules A to D submitted as evidence by the Republic. Schedule A showed that from 1965 to 1984, the Marcoses reported Php 16,408,442.00 or USD 2,414,484.91 in total income, comprised of:
Income Source Amount Percentage
Official Salaries - ₱ 2,627,581.00 - 16.01%
Legal Practice - 11,109,836.00 - 67.71%
Farm Income - 149,700.00 - .91%
Others - 2,521,325.00 - 15.37%
Total ₱ 16,408,442.00 - 100.00%


The amount reported by the Marcos couple as their combined salaries more or less coincided with the Official Report submitted by the Minister of Budget. Yet what appeared anomalous was the Php 11,109,836 representing "Legal Practice," which accounted for 67% or more than three-fourths of their reported income. Out of this anomalous amount, Php 10,649,836, or 96% thereof, represented "receivables from prior years" during the period 1967 to 1984. The Court cited the Solicitor General’s findings:

In the guise of reporting income using the cash method under Section 38 of the National Internal Revenue Code, FM made it appear that he had an extremely profitable legal practice before he became a President (FM being barred by law from practicing his law profession during his entire presidency) and that, incredibly, he was still receiving payments almost 20 years after. The only problem is that in his Balance Sheet attached to his 1965 ITR immediately preceding his ascendancy to the presidency he did not show any Receivables from client at all, much less the ₱ 10.65-M that he decided to later recognize as income. There are no documents showing any withholding tax certificates. Likewise, there is nothing on record that will show any known Marcos client as he has no known law office. As previously stated, his net worth was a mere ₱ 120,000.00 in December, 1965. The joint income tax returns of FM and Imelda cannot, therefore, conceal the skeletons of their kleptocracy.40

In addition, the former President also reported a total of Php 2,521,325 which he referred to as "Miscellaneous Items" and "Various Corporations" under "Other Income" for 1972-1976. Spouses Marcos did not declare any income from any deposits that may be subject to a 5% withholding tax, nor did they file any capital gains tax returns from 1960 to 1965. The Bureau of Internal Revenue attested that there are no records pertaining to the tax transactions of the spouses in Baguio City, Manila, Quezon City, and Tacloban.

The Balance Sheet attached to the couple’s ITR for 1965 indicates an ending net worth of Php 120,000, which covered the year immediately preceding their ascendancy to the presidency. As previously mentioned, the combined salaries of the spouses for the period 1966 to 1986, or in the two decades that they stayed in power, totaled only USD 304,372.43. In stark contrast, as shown by Schedule D, computations establish the total net worth of the spouses for the years 1965 until 1984 in the total amount of USD 957,487.75, assuming that the income from legal practice is real and valid.41 The combined salaries make up only 31.79% of the spouses’ total net worth from 1965 to 1984. This means petitioners are unable to account for or explain more than two-thirds of the total net worth of the Marcos spouses from 1965 to 1984.

Xxx."

G.R. No. 189434 April 25, 2012

FERDINAND R. MARCOS, JR. Petitioner,
vs.
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, represented by the Presidential Commission on Good Government, Respondent.

x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

G.R. No. 189505

IMELDA ROMUALDEZ-MARCOS, Petitioner,
vs.
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, Respondent.

Link:
https://www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2012/apr2012/gr_189434_2012.html