OSG rejects Tanenglian’s request to turn state witness

OSG rejects Tanenglian’s request to turn state witness

Monday, 21 September 2009 00:00

THE Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has rejected the application of businessman Mariano Tanenglian to turn “state witness” against his brother, business tycoon Lucio Tan, and several others in connection with the ill-gotten wealth cases filed against them by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG). In a nine page memorandum, Acting Justice Secretary and concurrent Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera recommended to Commission Chairman Camilo Sabio to immediately reject Tanenglian’s “immunity agreement proposal” for being “grossly disadvantageous to the Republic.”

The Office of the Solicitor General made the recommendation after the Commission legal department director J. Ermin Ernest Louie Miguel sought the Devanadera’s opinion on the matter in a letter dated July 13, 2009.

In the same recommendation, Devanadera also said that the businessman has “obscure motives” and the cooperation he offered “would serve no useful purpose” for the government, especially that “such admission would have zero credibility in light of the considerable delay of more than 20 years before he comes out with it, and on the occasion of the eventful rift with his co-defendant Lucio Tan.”

“Looking at the instant draft Immunity Agreement, it appears that there are matters of critical concern and consideration that negate its approval and execution . . . In view of the foregoing, the undersigned [Devanadera] respectfully recommend that the draft Immunity Agreement be rejected outright,” the Solicitor General chief said.

Under the said agreement, Tanenglian would testify against his brother and other accuse and provide as well the government, among others, with information relevant to the case.
In exchange, Tanenglian proposed that the Presidential Commission on Good Government grant him and his immediate family both civil and criminal immunity and he should be dropped as well as a defendant in a civil case being pursued by the government.

Tanenglian also asked that all the writs of sequestration, particularly his shares of stocks in the Lucio Tan Group of Companies, be lifted.

Devanadera pointed out that “Tanenglian was even a Treasurer in some of the corporations” and is “named principal defendants who . . . actively collaborated with the Marcoses in the accumulation of ill-gotten wealth.”

Devanadera also warned that the proposed special grant of immunity may be used by Tan and the other defendants, in connivance with Tanenglian, as a scheme to protect their shareholdings by transferring their shares of stocks in favor of Tanenglian.

Three’s a crowd, four is competition

Three’s a crowd, four is competition

http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20090923-226490/Threes-a-crowd-four-is-competition

Philippine Daily Inquirer

First Posted 02:10:00 09/23/2009

Kapitan never sells. Ever.

IT’S LONG BEEN rumored that tycoon Lucio Tan is considering selling flag carrier Philippine Airlines because of the losses it incurred from costly fuel hedges contracted when global oil prices were at record levels. In fact, San Miguel president Ramon Ang is rumored to be a potential buyer.

But the rumors turned out to be false.

PAL president Jaime Bautista told reporters in a recent interview that the “Kapitan” doesn’t even know how to sell, when it comes to his prized assets (read: Why would the country’s second richest man need or even want to sell what he considers to be valuable?).

But Bautista says PAL is not closing its doors to getting a potential foreign strategic partner. Long ago, there were reports that PAL may sell a minority stake to foreign investors.

Bautista said that, in the past, there were talks with the likes of Cathay Pacific and Singapore Air. But all that talk turned out to be nothing but hot air. Doris C. Dumlao

PNB, Security Bank surge

OVER THE LAST few weeks, shares of PNB and Security Bank had attracted interest in the stock market, driven by separate merger and acquisition (M&A) stories.

PNB, for its part, is said to be benefiting from expectations that the merger with Allied Bank may finally happen soon.

Allied is said to be close to selling its stake in San Francisco-based Oceanic Bank—a prerequisite laid out by US banking regulators before clearing the merger.

Some traders said PNB had been trading at a huge discount to book value for two reasons: the sibling rivalry between Lucio Tan and Mariano Tanenglian; and the merger of PNB and Allied Bank which appears to be taking a thousand years to settle.

But now, investors are taking a second look at the stock given its much improved fundamentals.
Security Bank is believed to be the only local player (although there may be some foreign competition) now left in the running for PBCom, where a controlling stake is on the block.
Financial Adviser Macquarie is mandated to complete the PBcom sale before year’s end. Doris C. Dumlao

PCGG urged to nix deal with Lucio Tan brother

PCGG urged to nix deal with Lucio Tan brother

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20090921-226217/PCGG-urged-to-nix-deal-with-Lucio-Tan-brother

By Norman Bordadora
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 07:16:00 09/21/2009


MANILA, Philippines—The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) wants the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to turn down a proposed immunity agreement with Mariano Tanenglian in exchange for his testimony against his estranged brother, tycoon Lucio Tan, in a Marcos ill-gotten wealth case.

In a nine-page memorandum to PCGG Chair Camilo Sabio, Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera said the proposed agreement would be “grossly disadvantageous” to the Philippine government.
“Up to this time, Tanenglian has not given the PCGG any new information that could perhaps further strengthen the republic’s case. He merely relies on documents already available to the republic,” Devanadera said.

Devanadera said there was no certainty that Tanenglian would provide useful information at all despite his commitment to do so once the immunity agreement is executed.
“This being so, the proposal of Tanenglian is grossly disadvantageous to the Republic,” she added.

Under the immunity agreement, Tanenglian commits to cooperate with the government in the ill-gotten wealth case, Civil Case No. 005, by providing information relevant to the case and by making himself available as a witness for the republic if requested.In exchange for his testimony, Tanenglian expects to be dropped from among the respondents in the case which is related to the Marcoses’ alleged stake in Lucio Tan’s companies.

He also wants to be granted immunity in connection with other cases related to the Lucio Tan group of companies.

Tanenglian had a recent falling out with his brother over personal and corporate differences.
The OSG said Tanenglian’s proposal to make admissions on the existence of vital documents or marked exhibits for the government as stated “would serve no useful purpose.”

“(Such) admission would have zero credibility in light of the considerable delay of more than 20 years before he comes out with it, and on the occasion of the eventful rift with his co-defendant Lucio Tan,” the OSG said.

Devanadera said the PCGG could better rely on the veracity of Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr.’s voluntary testimony for the government, without immunity or any concessions, having seen or identified these vital documents.

The OSG also questioned the motives of Tanenglian in offering himself as a government witness against his own brother.

“Tanenglian’s motives are obscure. If Tanenglian is only protecting his existing interest in the Lucio Tan Group of companies, then why does he need to execute an immunity agreement if, in the opinion of his counsels, the prosecution in Civil Case No. 005 is weak,” the OSG said .

How to Lose a PCGG Case

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20090919-225903/How-to-lose-a-PCGG-case

How to lose a PCGG case

By Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:14:00 09/19/2009
Filed Under: Litigation & Regulations, Graft & Corruption,Government


This has to be another one of those “only in the Philippines” situations. In last week’s column, I wrote that Mariano Tanenglian, Lucio Tan’s younger brother, had offered to be a witness for the government in its case (Civil Case 005) against 29 individual defendants including Ferdinand Marcos, Lucio Tan and Tanenglian himself—in exchange for immunity from prosecution. His lawyers had met with the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG)—Camilo Sabio, Ricardo Abcede, Tereso Javier and Narciso Nario attending—together with representatives of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) on July 13, 2009 to discuss the details, including a draft of the immunity agreement that they had prepared. Apparently, the meeting ended with the government side agreeing in principle to the draft agreement, and the only thing that was needed to seal the deal was the formal opinion of the OSG on the matter.

Such opinion did not materialize, and a follow-up letter was sent by the (new) Tanenglian lawyers on Aug. 19—but it was again met with a blank wall of silence.

Well, Tanenglian apparently ran out of patience with the PCGG, because on Sept. 9 his lawyers filed a motion with the Sandiganbayan, asking it to compel the PCGG to act on his offer to testify, and to reopen trial for his testimony.

The “only in the Philippines” part is not only that the government doesn’t seem to want to win this case (else it would have grabbed the golden opportunity to have a witness of this importance on its side); it is also that the witness who knows where the bodies are is the one begging the court to let him testify.

Both the PCGG and the OSG have a lot of explaining to do. I am informed that a newspaper reporter asked both the PCGG (a commissioner and the head of the legal department) and the OSG (the solicitor in charge of Civil Case 005) why they were keeping the Tanenglian offer in suspended animation. The answer he got was that Tanenglian had not agreed with the terms and conditions imposed by the PCGG/OSG. But not one of them could cite what those terms and conditions were. Their answer is also belied by the Aug. 19 letter of Tanenglian’s lawyers to

PCGG and the Sept. 9 motion of the same lawyers before the Sandiganbayan.
And while we’re at it, they should also answer why they fired Catalino Generillo Jr.—or more accurately did not renew his appointment as special counsel (PCGG), which expired end December 2008, or his deputation from the OSG which ended in November 2008. Generillo is the only lawyer on the government team who seemed to be taking any initiative or doing any serious research or coming up with fresh (and damning) evidence and witnesses to buttress the government’s case. That Generillo’s appointment as special counsel (he was originally hired in 2001 by Haydee Yorac—need one say more?) was not renewed becomes even more puzzling in light of what the PCGG head (Sabio) reportedly told him after a four-hour meeting on Jan. 14 of this year (Generillo thought that the renewal of his appointment—which has to be done every six months—was just a victim of the usual bureaucratic delay): “Good work. We are 100 percent behind you.”

The OSG should also be asked to explain why it was only after Tan’s lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, questioned Generillo’s credentials that it sent Generillo a “deputation” letter covering the period July-November 2008. Generillo tells me that in all his years at the PCGG, he had never ever received such a letter.

Another mystery that the PCGG and OSG should clarify: Why did they wait until June 29, 2009—or six/seven months after firing him—before they asked Generillo to turn over his exhibits? What does this delay say about their desire or willingness to successfully prosecute Civil Case 005? And as if to make up for their cavalier attitude toward the case, they asked him to turn over those papers by July 1.

Any lingering doubts about this issue vanishes when one learns that when Jaime Laya appeared at the Sandiganbayan to testify, in response to a subpoena (issued when Generillo was still in charge of the case), the OSG was taken by surprise. So when Mendoza objected to Laya’s being a witness, apparently there was either very weak or no rebuttal from the OSG.

Generillo, by the way, refuses to turn over the fruits of his legal research and labor to the PCGG/OSG—and as a result, the two have asked the Sandiganbayan to compel him to do so. In response (an Omnibus Motion), he has asked, among other things, that the trial of Civil Case 005 (or the government’s presentation of evidence or part of it) be reopened to allow the government to present Tanenglian as its witness—and Generillo will submit his exhibits as part of that testimony.

My guess, though, as to the real reason he is loathe to turn over those documents he unearthed to the PCGG and OSG is that they might get lost—as so many other documents in the possession of the PCGG have (conveniently?) gotten lost, such as the certified true copies of Marcos documents that the US Customs Service had mailed to the PCGG at its request. Generillo had searched high and low for it, fruitlessly.

Is it any wonder that the Republic of the Philippines loses so many of its cases? Not only can the defense pay for excellent lawyers like Estelito Mendoza; also, government lawyers seem to have either no ability, or no desire, or no willingness to do a competent job. And when they do, they get kicked out. Or face a captured judiciary.

Bong Tan’s own power struggle

Bong Tan’s own power struggle
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideBusop.htm?f=/2009/september/2/vicagustin.isx&d=2009/september/2

http://cocktales.ph/?p=1792

IT seems that Lucio Tan Jr. is himself having his own internal power struggle.

But instead of the sibling feud eating up his billionaire father and his uncle, the young Tan is wrestling with more productive exertions.

According to the grapevine, the firstborn son of the country’s second richest man has been quietly headhunting and assembling a management team for a $900-million, 330-megawatt hydro power plant in Nueva Vizcaya, a venture that will be outside of the Lucio Tan Group of companies.

The power plant venture, apparently being undertaken with mainland Chinese partners and funding, has already hired as chief financial officer Caesar Altarejos Jr., a former CFO of Sunlife and TKC Steel, and former Carpio Villaraza lawyer Cynthia Nuval as chief legal officer.

In a move to dissociate the new venture from the family empire, the junior Tan chose to rent half a floor in LKG Tower, which is owned by the father-in-law of Bong Tan’s sister, rather than ask for space in his father’s Allied Bank Center.

Lucio ‘Bong’ Tan Jr. spreads his wings

Lucio ‘Bong’ Tan Jr. spreads his wings

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideBusop.htm?f=2009/august/10/vicagustin.isx&d=2009/august/10

FOR a change, there is something positive brewing among the various contending factions of the extended Lucio Tan family.

The publicized feud between the taipan and his brother Mariano, as well as Tan’s hospitalization after suffering a slip while alighting from a helicopter, have apparently served as a wake-up call for his eldest son, Lucio Jr.

The San Francisco-educated Tan has been seen holding a series of meetings with HSBC Philippine treasurer and head of capital markets Jose Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso, along with MRC Allied chairman Benjamin Bitanga.

According to the grapevine, the young Tan plans to raise P2 billion for a still undisclosed project and has apparently been consulting Bitanga, who had sold to the elder Tan the shell company of what is now the publicly-listed MacroAsia, on how to best raise the sizable amount.

Rather than compete and jostle with fellow siblings for a piece of the Tan empire, the 43-year-old son, if the grapevine is to be believed, apparently wants the P2-billion capital that he planned to raise to start his own little kingdom independent of his 75-year-old father’s airline, banking, real estate, tobacco, hotel, and school conglomerate.

It was not immediately clear how the planned capital-raising exercise will hew with the recent appointment of the junior Tan as president of Tanduay Distillery.

How to lose a PCGG case

How to lose a PCGG case

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20090919-225903/How-to-lose-a-PCGG-case

By Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:14:00 09/19/2009

This has to be another one of those “only in the Philippines” situations. In last week’s column, I wrote that Mariano Tanenglian, Lucio Tan’s younger brother, had offered to be a witness for the government in its case (Civil Case 005) against 29 individual defendants including Ferdinand Marcos, Lucio Tan and Tanenglian himself—in exchange for immunity from prosecution. His lawyers had met with the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG)—Camilo Sabio, Ricardo Abcede, Tereso Javier and Narciso Nario attending—together with representatives of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) on July 13, 2009 to discuss the details, including a draft of the immunity agreement that they had prepared. Apparently, the meeting ended with the government side agreeing in principle to the draft agreement, and the only thing that was needed to seal the deal was the formal opinion of the OSG on the matter.

Such opinion did not materialize, and a follow-up letter was sent by the (new) Tanenglian lawyers on Aug. 19—but it was again met with a blank wall of silence.

Well, Tanenglian apparently ran out of patience with the PCGG, because on Sept. 9 his lawyers filed a motion with the Sandiganbayan, asking it to compel the PCGG to act on his offer to testify, and to reopen trial for his testimony.

The “only in the Philippines” part is not only that the government doesn’t seem to want to win this case (else it would have grabbed the golden opportunity to have a witness of this importance on its side); it is also that the witness who knows where the bodies are is the one begging the court to let him testify.

Both the PCGG and the OSG have a lot of explaining to do. I am informed that a newspaper reporter asked both the PCGG (a commissioner and the head of the legal department) and the OSG (the solicitor in charge of Civil Case 005) why they were keeping the Tanenglian offer in suspended animation. The answer he got was that Tanenglian had not agreed with the terms and conditions imposed by the PCGG/OSG. But not one of them could cite what those terms and conditions were. Their answer is also belied by the Aug. 19 letter of Tanenglian’s lawyers to PCGG and the Sept. 9 motion of the same lawyers before the Sandiganbayan.

And while we’re at it, they should also answer why they fired Catalino Generillo Jr.—or more accurately did not renew his appointment as special counsel (PCGG), which expired end December 2008, or his deputation from the OSG which ended in November 2008. Generillo is the only lawyer on the government team who seemed to be taking any initiative or doing any serious research or coming up with fresh (and damning) evidence and witnesses to buttress the government’s case. That Generillo’s appointment as special counsel (he was originally hired in 2001 by Haydee Yorac—need one say more?) was not renewed becomes even more puzzling in light of what the PCGG head (Sabio) reportedly told him after a four-hour meeting on Jan. 14 of this year (Generillo thought that the renewal of his appointment—which has to be done every six months—was just a victim of the usual bureaucratic delay): “Good work. We are 100 percent behind you.”

The OSG should also be asked to explain why it was only after Tan’s lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, questioned Generillo’s credentials that it sent Generillo a “deputation” letter covering the period July-November 2008. Generillo tells me that in all his years at the PCGG, he had never ever received such a letter.

Another mystery that the PCGG and OSG should clarify: Why did they wait until June 29, 2009—or six/seven months after firing him—before they asked Generillo to turn over his exhibits? What does this delay say about their desire or willingness to successfully prosecute Civil Case 005? And as if to make up for their cavalier attitude toward the case, they asked him to turn over those papers by July 1.

Any lingering doubts about this issue vanishes when one learns that when Jaime Laya appeared at the Sandiganbayan to testify, in response to a subpoena (issued when Generillo was still in charge of the case), the OSG was taken by surprise. So when Mendoza objected to Laya’s being a witness, apparently there was either very weak or no rebuttal from the OSG.

Generillo, by the way, refuses to turn over the fruits of his legal research and labor to the PCGG/OSG—and as a result, the two have asked the Sandiganbayan to compel him to do so. In response (an Omnibus Motion), he has asked, among other things, that the trial of Civil Case 005 (or the government’s presentation of evidence or part of it) be reopened to allow the government to present Tanenglian as its witness—and Generillo will submit his exhibits as part of that testimony.

My guess, though, as to the real reason he is loathe to turn over those documents he unearthed to the PCGG and OSG is that they might get lost—as so many other documents in the possession of the PCGG have (conveniently?) gotten lost, such as the certified true copies of Marcos documents that the US Customs Service had mailed to the PCGG at its request. Generillo had searched high and low for it, fruitlessly.

Is it any wonder that the Republic of the Philippines loses so many of its cases? Not only can the defense pay for excellent lawyers like Estelito Mendoza; also, government lawyers seem to have either no ability, or no desire, or no willingness to do a competent job. And when they do, they get kicked out. Or face a captured judiciary.

The mysterious case of lawyer Catalino Generillo

The mysterious case of lawyer Catalino Generillo

By Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:03:00 09/12/2009

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20090912-224787/The-mysterious-case-of-lawyer-Catalino-Generillo


Catalino Aldea Generillo Jr., who broke into the public’s consciousness as a special counsel of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), got fired for doing a good job. But he is fighting on. Earlier this week he wrote a letter to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in the belief that it is his sacred duty to call her attention to the “appalling conduct of the PCGG and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in Civil Case No. 005.” Civil Case No. 005 is entitled “Republic of the Philippines vs Estate of Ferdinand Marcos et al.” It was filed at the Sandiganbayan in 1987 and, by its number, it is one of the first cases of unexplained wealth filed after the People Power Revolt. There are 29 individual defendants and 40 corporate defendants in this case, which is probably why it took almost 17 years to reach the pre-trial stage, and another two years to start its actual trial.

The case made the headlines, not least because Lucio Tan and Imelda Marcos are among the defendants, and Tan’s corporations are among the corporate defendants (e.g., Allied Bank, Fortune Tobacco, Asia Brewery). What made it even more conspicuous is that Ms Marcos filed a cross-complaint against her co-defendant Tan, claiming among others that the Marcos heirs owned 60 percent of Tan’s corporate assets, and she presented documentary evidence to that effect. The Sandiganbayan did not give due course to the cross-complaint, nor did the Supreme Court.

So what is Generillo’s beef? What does he consider “appalling” conduct by the PCGG and the OSG? He is outraged that these agencies have been sitting on the offer of Mariano Tanenglian, one of the defendants in the case and the brother of Tan, to be a government witness in exchange for immunity. Apparently, there had been meetings earlier this year, and on July 18, 2009, Tanenglian’s lawyers formally discussed with PCGG officials his offer to testify for the government.

One would think that the PCGG and OSG would have grabbed the chance to have as witness for the prosecution somebody who figuratively knew exactly where all the bodies were buried. After all, Tanenglian, until he was booted out of the Lucio Tan group this year, was treasurer or held the equivalent position in all of its companies. But nothing happened. So one month later, on Aug. 19, the lawyers of Tanenglian reiterated their offer, only to be met by another blank wall of silence. Thus Generillo’s Sept. 8 letter to the President.

Is Generillo just a case of sour grapes because he was fired from the PCGG? Or more accurately, because his deputation as special counsel was not renewed late last year? (The deputation is done every six months.) Therein lies an interesting tale.

First, let’s look at Generillo’s background. He was with the Philippine National Bank (PNB) since 1973, when he passed its entrance exams—one of 200 who qualified out of 6,000 applicants. Starting as bank examiner, he worked his way up to vice president, at the same time, studying law (graduating magna cum laude from Lyceum) and passing the bar in 1983. He left PNB in 1999, taking advantage of an early retirement package, and started his private practice.
In 2001, he heard Haydee Yorac, newly-appointed chair of the PCGG, over the radio, bemoaning its lack of good lawyers, and sounding the call for public service. He immediately wrote her. She must have been impressed with his qualifications and interview, because she promptly hired him. He stayed on after she left, and was assigned to Civil Case 005 in January 2001, when the lawyer handling it resigned.

And that’s where he started getting into trouble. He apparently did more homework than most on the case, because he uncovered more evidence and interviewed more possible witnesses—a fact which obviously did not sit well with the Tan side, and less obviously with the PCGG and the OSG. A news report has Generillo claiming that he had to overcome the reluctance of both the PCGG and Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera before he could present Bongbong Marcos as a hostile witness to help confirm the alleged “special concessions” obtained by Tan from Marcos.
He also found previously undiscovered documents from the Malacañang Museum with the help of its director, Jeremy Barnes, who he also put on the witness stand—documents like a letter written to Marcos (signed by Tanenglian) in 1984, asking him to approve a deposit of $50 million by the Central Bank to Allied Bank, and another letter requesting tax exemption for 100 million bottles for Asia Brewery—both approved by marginal notation. It took three days for the court to mark all the new documents.

Moreover, he impleaded as witness a former PNB executive who testified that Tan was given special treatment, both by the PNB (a P300-million line of credit when P200 million was the single-borrower’s limit), and the CB.

This burst of activity from a heretofore lackadaisical PCGG may have prompted Estelito Mendoza, Tan’s defense lawyer, to write a letter to the PCGG, pointing out that while the OSG is supposed to be representing the PCGG in all cases, yet it was Generillo prosecuting, “indeed, apparently controlling the prosecution of the case.” He then asked for a copy of Generillo’s designation as special counsel and his authority to prosecute the case.

That letter was written on Nov. 17, 2008. Generillo’s deputation as special counsel was not renewed as of the end of November 2008. Draw your own conclusions.

Dismissed Lawyer Presses Case vs Tan

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20090902-223250/Dismissed-lawyer-presses-case-vs-Tan

By Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:37:00 09/02/2009


MANILA, Philippines -- Kicked out of the case by the Office of the Solicitor General, a private lawyer asked the Sandiganbayan on Wednesday to reopen the presentation of evidence against tycoon Lucio Tan, saying Tan’s own brother Mariano Tanenglian was finally ready to be a state witness.

In an omnibus motion with the Sandiganbayan 5th Division, lawyer Catalino Generillo Jr. said: “Mariano Tanenglian had a change of heart and would like to tell the truth and serve the cause of justice. His willingness to turn state witness should impel the Court to reopen trial and allow him to testify.”

“This is a judicial duty it cannot shirk from,” he added.

In a July 13 ruling, the court ordered the prosecution to terminate its presentation of evidence, junking its motion asking for more time to present more witnesses.

But Generillo said in his motion: “The willingness of Mariano Tanenglian to testify in this case is a supervening event that could alter the course of this proceeding and serve the ends of justice. The Court should not ignore it and should reopen the trial.”

The government is seeking to prove that Tan's assets form part of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses so it could seize these in favor of the state.

Generillo argued that Tanenglian would be a competent state witness against his brother because of his knowledge of the deals between Tan and the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Tanenglian, himself, had transactions with Marcos.

In one instance, Tanenglian managed to convince Marcos to ask the Central Bank to deposit $50.6 million in the Allied Bank even if bank rules prohibited putting government funds in private banks, Generillo said in his 48-page motion.

Generillo said Tanenglian was ready to testify that Lucio Tan "is a mere trustee or agent" of Marcos.

He also promised the 5th Division he would offer his documentary exhibits, which the OSG had demanded him to return when it disowned him in May, as part of Tanenglian's testimony.
In a July 31 order, the 5th Division granted the OSG's manifestation and motion which declared that Generillo was no longer part of the prosecution and demanded that he return documentary exhibits in his possession.

Generillo is credited with presenting witnesses the OSG and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) had failed to present like former Sen. Jovito Salonga and Ilocos Rep. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

But in his omnibus motion, Generillo said the court order was "null and void and must be set aside." He said he "is the legal owner of the documentary exhibits" and that the court order was "devoid of legal basis."

Generillo also asked the members of the Sandiganbayan 5th Division, where the case is pending, to inhibit themselves from the case for the delay in resolving a government motion filed almost two years ago.