The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division has junked two motions related to businessman Mariano Tanenglian’s efforts to turn state witness and testify against his own brother, tobacco magnate Lucio Tan.
In two resolutions released on Friday, the Sandiganbayan’s dismissed Tanenglian’s motion to reconsider his offer to turn state witness, and another motion filed by lawyer Catalino Generillo seeking the reopening of the presentation of evidence against Tan.
In both resolutions, the court said that no new issues were raised in the new motions to warrant the reversal or modification of the earlier rulings.
Mariano Tanenglian is charged together with Tan with allegedly holding assets that are part of the ill-gotten wealth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. But after a falling-out with his brother, Tanenglian offered to turn state’s evidence in exchange for immunity.
In January, the court denied Tanenglian’s manifestation and motion which asked the court to direct the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to resolve his offer to become a government witness, to reopen the trial so he could testify, and to order the PCGG and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to give him copies of their recommendations.
In again denying his appeal, the court said it agreed with Tan as well as with government lawyers that Tanenglian raised the same issues the court had already resolved. The court noted that it was the prosecution that should be asking for a reopening of the presentation of evidence and not Tanenglian, who is one of the defendants in the case.
In February, the court denied an omnibus motion of Atty. Catalino Generillo that sought, among other things, the reopening of the trial so Tanenglian could testify.
The court said Generillo, who was part of the prosecution panel against Tan until the OSG terminated his services, was no longer a real party in interest in the case.
Generillo filed a second motion for reconsideration in March but this was also denied by the court in the resolution released on Friday.
Source:
Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted May 2, 2010 at http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100502-267651/Court-junks-brothers-plea-to-testify-vs-Lucio-Tan
