In their attempt to dismiss the amended complaints in question, petitioners asseverate that (1) the coconut farmers cannot be considered as “subordinates, close and/or business associates, dummies, agents and nominees” of Cojuangco, Jr. or the Marcoses, and (2) the sequestered shares were not illegally acquired nor acquired “through or as result of improper or illegal use or conversion of funds belonging to the Government.” While not saying so explicitly, petitioners are doubtless conveying the idea that wealth, however acquired, would not be considered “ill-gotten” in the context of EO 1, 2 and 14, s. of 1986, absent proof that the recipient or end possessor thereof is outside the Marcos’ circle of friends, associates, cronies or nominees.
We are not convinced.
As may be noted, E.O. 1 and 2 advert to President Marcos, or his associates’ nominees. In its most common signification, the term “nominee” refers to one who is designated to act for another usually in a limited way; [82] a person in whose name a stock or bond certificate is registered but who is not the actual owner thereof is considered a nominee.”[83] Corpus Juris Secundumdescribes a nominee as one:
… designated to act for another as his representative in a rather limited sense. It has no connotation, however, other than that of acting for another, in representation of another or as the grantee of another. In its commonly accepted meaning the term connoted the delegation of authority to the nominee in a representative or nominal capacity only, and does not connote the transfer or assignment to the nominee of any property in, or ownership of, the rights of the person nominating him.[84]
So, the next question that comes to the fore is: would the term “nominee” include the more than one million coconut farmers alleged to be the recipients of the UCPB shares?
Guided by the foregoing definitions, the query must be answered in the affirmative if only to give life to those executive issuances aimed at ensuring the recovery of ill-gotten wealth. It is basic, almost elementary, that:
Laws must receive a sensible interpretation to promote the ends for which they are enacted. They should be so given reasonable and practical construction as will give life to them, if it can be done without doing violence to reason. Conversely, a law should not be so construed as to allow the doing of an act which is prohibited by law, not so interpreted as to afford an opportunity to defeat compliance with its terms, create an inconsistency, or contravene the plain words of the law. Interpretatio fienda est ut res magis valeat quam pereat or that interpretation as will give the thing efficacy is to be adopted.[85]
E.O. 1, 2, 14 and 14-A, it bears to stress, were issued precisely to effect the recovery of ill-gotten assets amassed by the Marcoses, their associates, subordinates and cronies, or through their nominees. Be that as it may, it stands to reason that persons listed as associated with the Marcoses[86] refer to those in possession of such ill-gotten wealth but holding the same in behalf of the actual, albeit undisclosed owner, to prevent discovery and consequently recovery. Certainly, it is well-nigh inconceivable that ill-gotten assets would be distributed to and left in the hands of individuals or entities with obvious traceable connections to Mr. Marcos and his cronies. The Court can take, as it has in fact taken, judicial notice of schemes and machinations that have been put in place to keep ill-gotten assets under wraps. These would include the setting up of layers after layers of shell or dummy, but controlled, corporations[87] or manipulated instruments calculated to confuse if not altogether mislead would-be investigators from recovering wealth deceitfully amassed at the expense of the people or simply the fruits thereof. Transferring the illegal assets to third parties not readily perceived as Marcos cronies would be another. So it was that in PCGG v. Pena, the Court, describing the rule of Marcos as a “well entrenched plundering regime of twenty years,” noted the magnitude of the past regime’s organized pillage and the ingenuity of the plunderers and pillagers with the assistance of experts and the best legal minds in the market.[88]
Hence, to give full effect to E.O. 1, 2 and 14, s. of 1986, the term “nominee,” as used in the above issuances, must be taken to mean to include any person or group of persons, natural or juridical, in whose name government funds or assets were transferred to by Pres. Marcos, his cronies or his associates. To this characterization must include what the Sandiganbayan considered the “unidentified” coconut farmers, more than a million of faceless and nameless coconut farmers, the alleged beneficiaries of the distributed UCPB shares, who, under the terms of Sec. 10 of PCA A.O. No. 1, s. of 1975, were required, upon the delivery of their respective stock certificates, to execute an irrevocable proxy in favor of the Bank’s manager. There is thus ample truth to the observations - “[That] the PCA provided this condition only indicates that the PCA had no intention to constitute the coconut farmer
From the foregoing, the challenge on the Sandiganbayan’s subject matter jurisdiction at bar must fail.
