REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

vs.

MARIA REMEDIOS ARGANA , et. al

Civil Case No. 0026

TIMELINE

DATE

March 17, 1986 Atty. Victor Aguinaldo wrote the President of the
Philippines, requesting investigation of the al-
leged "unexplained wealth of former Muntinlupa
Mayor Maximo Argana, Donata A. Argana, and
the Dummies." The latter was referred by the
then Minister of Justice of the president Commis-
sion on Good Government, or PCGG, which filed,
through the Solicitor General, forfeiture proceed-
ings in the Sandiganbayan.chanroble

October 28, 1987 the Sandiganbayan directed the PCGG to con-

duct a "previous inquiry to preliminary investiga-
tion in criminal cases," as required by sec. 2 of
Republic Act No. 1379. Meantime it suspended
the proceedings before it however, that forfei-
ture proceedings partake.

February 7, 1990 after PCGG conducted "the preliminary investi-

gation, they informed the Sandiganbayan that it
had found that there [was] sufficient evidence to
support and sustain the allegations in the Peti-
tion for forfeiture filed in this case by the Solici-
tor General." The petition for forfeiture was sub-
sequently amended to include Milagro Argana
Rogelio as additional respondent.

July 5, 1991 Private respondents moved to dismiss the case,

contending the following:

(1) former Mayor Maximino Argana had died on

June 30, 1985 and that his death was a bar
to the filing of the petition for forfeiture, and

(2) the PCGG had acted beyond its competence

in conducting the preliminary investigation.
 DATE

June 16, 1994 Accordingly, the Sandiganbayan ordered:

WHEREFORE, the Motion To Dismiss together with
its Supplement, filed by the respondents, through
counsel, is here by granted. As prayed for, the
Amended Petition For Forfeiture in the above-en-
titled case is hereby dismissed but without preju-
dice to refilling of the same by the Office of the
Solicitor General, if so warranted, after the nec-
essary preliminary investigation shall have first
been conducted by the Ombudsman.

With respect to the first contention, the San-

diganbayan ruled that the death of former mayor
Argana was not a bar to the forfeiture proceed-
ings because such proceedings are actions in rem,
resigned to reach properties and, therefore, are
not affected by the death of the defendant. How-
ever, the Sandiganbayan found the second
ground to be meritorious for the reason that un-
der Executive Order No. 1, which created the
PCGG, only cases for recovery of ill-gotten wealth
acquired because of close association with former
President Ferdinand E. Marcos can be investi-
gated by the PCGG. Since there was no allegation
that former Mayor Maximino Argana had acquired
the properties allegedly ill-gotten by him because
of close association with former President Marcos,
the PCGG had no authority to investigate him. Pe-
titioner moved for reconsideration, but its motion
was denied by the Sandiganbayan in its resolu-
tion.

Clearly, from both the letter of Atty. Victor D.

Aguinaldo, dated March 17, 1986, and the
Amended Petition for forfeiture, dated October
29, 1990, in the case at bar, it is alleged that the
late Mayor Maximino Argana unlawfully accumu-
lated wealth by taking advantage of his position
as the then incumbent mayor of Muntinlupa,
Metro Manila. No attempt was made whatsoever
to link the late Mayor Maximino Argana or his ac-
cumulation of unexplained wealth to the late
President Marcos and/or his family.

September 18, 1997 Republic of the Philippines and the Argana’s

executed a compromise agreement
 DATE

July 31, 1998 The compromise agreement was approved by

the Sandiganbayan.

Later on Republic of the Philippines moved

for recession because while the agreement di-
vided the properties 75-25% in favor of the
Republic of the Philippines, respondent got the
high- value lands.

April 11, 2000 Resolution:

the Sandiganbayan rescinded and set aside the
compromise agreement.

during the pre-trial stage, Republic of the Phil-

ippines pre-marked Exhibits “A to GGG10”
but the marked exhibits were lost.

PCGG was able to reconstitute the lost exhib-

its.

May 25, 2011 during the meeting with OSG counterpart OSG
received the reconstituted exhibits However,
PCGG needs to trace and complete the deriva-
tive titles.

Meanwhile, Para legal division was able to

communicate with main witness Atty. Victor
D. Aguinaldo, who said that he is still willing
to testify and that four of the five witnesses
are still alive.

PCGG traced and obtained substantial amount

of derivative titles. No new mission order for
AMD to continue at this point.

April 25, 2014 Hearing on motion :

Republic of the Philippines filed motion to set

case for continuation of preliminary confer-
ence and pre-marking and additional marking
of exhibits.
 DATE

April 29, 2014 The Sandiganbayan issued Notice of Continu-

ation of Preliminary Conference requiring
parties to submit their pre-trial briefs at least
three days from date of pre-trial.

November 27, 29 and December 1 , 5, 2017 Marking was set.

October 24, 2017 Entry of Appearance was filed by F.A. Bau-
tista and partners as counsel for defendants
except Maria Remedies Argana-Antonio and
Ma. Dorotea Argana- Shaw.