Sunday, March 23, 2008 [ philstar.com ]
The government hopes to collect some P140 million from the sequestered Boracay mansion in New Manila, Quezon City once it is auctioned this May.
Sheriff Edgardo Urieta, chief of the Sandiganbayan’s Judicial Staff Office, Security and Sheriff Services, said they are expecting the Commission on Audit (COA) to come out with a report on the estimated value of the Boracay mansion, which covers 7,400 square meters on 11th street tomorrow.
A meeting will be held on Tuesday to set a date for the auction of the mansion, Urieta added, noting that it would probably take place on the site itself.
“We still have to raise the funds for the publication and other expenses for the auction. We still need to do the ‘rights survey.’ There are still a lot of documentations to be made,” he added.
He said a 10-day notice will be sent to all parties concerned with the auction of the mansion. Some of the parties expected to join the auction are the Quezon City government, the Office of the Solicitor General, and the National Treasury.
Urieta said the auction will push through despite the opposition of the Quezon City government, which is claiming it took over part of the property after its registered owner failed to pay taxes for several years.
“They wrote us and we answered it. I told them to tell the court (Sandiganbayan) about it. We are just ministerial. We will follow the court’s order only. I still have no court order to stop the auction so I will push through with it,” he said.
He added that the technical description of the lot has already been resolved.
The Boracay mansion is among the assets seized by the Sandiganbayan when it convicted former President Joseph Estrada of plunder.
Meanwhile, Urieta said they are also still waiting for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to lift a freeze order on the more than P1 billion deposited in Banco de Oro (BDO) under the name of Jose Velarde, an alias allegedly made by Estrada.
Estrada has denied he is Jose Velarde and claimed he does not own the properties and other assets under the Velarde account.
Urieta said the BDO has not yet acted on their letter asking the bank to deliver the assets to the Sandiganbayan’s Sheriffs’ Office.
BDO’s Gerardo Banzon told Urieta that the bank cannot deliver to the Sandiganbayan the initial amount of P95.8 million invested in Velarde’s “special savings account” since the bank is still waiting for the BIR’s final resolution on its freeze order, which the bureau issued because the owner of the account failed to pay taxes.
Last January, government lawyers, headed by Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio, discovered another account worth P1.1 billion deposited in BDO in a personal IMA trust account, also in the name of Jose Velarde.
The Sandiganbayan ruled on Sept. 12, 2007 plunder decision that the Jose Velarde account is owned by Estrada and used as depository of his ill-gotten wealth.
The newly discovered Velarde IMA account has assets in the BDO in the following amounts: P500 million listed under promissory notes and chattel mortgage; 750 million aggregate shares of Waterfront Philippines and Wellex Industries with an estimated value of P652.5 million; and cash deposits in a common trust fund investment account containing P95.8 million maturing by July 25.
Urieta is initially trying to garnish the common trust fund.
Estrada was convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan and sentenced to life imprisonment, but was pardoned by President Arroyo.
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