Sandiganbayan upholds forfeiture of over 200 properties of late Muntinlupa mayor

MANILA, Philippines – The Sandiganbayan has upheld its ruling declaring over 200 titled properties under the estate of the late Muntinlupa mayor Maximino Argana as ill-gotten and forfeiting them in favor of the government.

The anti-graft court rejected a petition filed by the Argana family seeking to overturn its August 18 decision, noting that the late mayor’s income as a local official – even when combined with the earnings of his wife – was “manifestly disproportionate” to the value of the real estate he amassed while in office.

“Considering Respondents’ failure to justify how they were able to acquire said properties out of their lawful income, the same are therefore considered to have been unlawfully acquired and should be forfeited in favor of the State,” the court said.

The 19-page resolution dated November 24, penned by Associate Justice Ronaldo Moreno, upheld the anti-graft court’s finding that the family failed to show the properties were obtained lawfully. Two other associate justices – Edgardo Caldona and Karl Miranda, chair of the Sandigan’s 3rd Division, concurred.

“The respondents failed to present sufficient evidence that would show the circumstances for their purchase of the properties listed in the Petition, as well as their financial ability to make the acquisitions,” read part of the ruling.

In declaring the covered assets as unexplained wealth, the Sandiganbayan said the combined value of the real properties amounted to P4.14 million while personal assets, including investments in a lending firm and a property development company, were valued at P1.72 million.

The court said Argana’s salaries as mayor over 15 years amounted to only P392,228.53, with allowances totaling P183,700. His wife, who worked as a teacher and later a school principal, earned P159,417.14 from 1964 to 1986.

Argana had been Muntinlupa’s mayor during the administration of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos. He led the then-municipality from 1964 to 1967 and from 1972 until his death in June 1985. It was during that period when he accumulated the landholdings subsequently targeted by a 1987 recovery petition filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).

‘Fraudulent settlement’

In 1997, or a decade later, the government nearly ceded the Argana estate in a deal that exposed the vulnerability of its own watchdogs to manipulation and deceit. Investigators later described the arrangement as a fraudulent settlement between the late mayor’s heirs and six PCGG officials.

In 2015, then-ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales held six former PCGG officials accountable for their role in drafting the rescinded agreement: ex-chairman Magtanggol Gunigundo, commissioners Reynaldo Guiao, Hermilo Rosal, Julieta Bertuben and Herminio Mendoza, and former director Mauro Estrada. No case appears to have been filed against the officials before the Sandiganbayan to date.

Under Gunigundo’s watch, the PCGG signed a compromise agreement with the Argana family that proposed a 75-25 split of the disputed assets, with the larger share intended for the national government. The deal allocated 361.92 hectares – or 75.1% of the family’s combined 481.774-hectare holdings – to the state.

Then-president Fidel Ramos approved the agreement on May 27, 1998, and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) signified its conformity on June 15. The Sandiganbayan approved the deal on July 31, 1998.

But the anti-graft court subsequently rescinded the deal on April 11, 2000, after a new set of PCGG and OSG lawyers argued that the government had been misled into accepting terms heavily favoring the Argana family.

Based on their findings, the government’s supposed 75.12% share was valued at only P3.62 million in farm lands, much of which was slated for coverage under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

By contrast, the Arganas’ retained share was estimated at least P4 billion in 1998.

The family tried to enforce the compromise agreement, but the Supreme Court blocked the move in 2004, calling the aborted deal “a virtual sell-out.”

The properties covered by the forfeiture order include:

• 224 lots in the old Barrio Bagbagan, Alabang, Muntinlupa, in the names of spouses Maximino Argana and Donata Almendrala
• 10 lots in Laguna, also in the names of the couple
• 19 lots in the names of Maria Remedios, Maria Felicidad, and Maria Dorotea Argana
• Two properties in the names of spouses Milagros and Juanito Rogelio
• One property in the names of spouses Gelacio and Rosario Argana
• Five lots under the property development company Refedor Southgold Property Management and Development Corp.
• Three properties in Calamba and San Pedro, Laguna, also registered to Refedor Southgold Property
• Three properties in Putatan and Tunasan, Muntinlupa, in the names of the late mayor and his widow, and one in San Pedro, Laguna
• One property in Tunasan, Muntinlupa, in the names of spouses Luis and Rosario Argana
• One property in Muntinlupa in the names of spouses Pedro and Amelia Marquinez

The court also seized shares of stocks for the national government:

• Sampaguita Savings and Loan Association Incorporated, listed under mayor Argana’s name
• 5,000 shares of Refedor, listed in the names of the mayor, his wife, and three children

– Rappler.com