MANILA – Tycoon Lucio Tan yesterday won a key Supreme Court ruling in a 21-year battle with the Philippines government for control of part of his business empire, court officials said.

The country's highest court ruled that the sequestration of disputed shares in four Tan companies -- including Allied Banking Corp., and Fortune Tobacco and Shareholdings Inc. -- was unlawful because the government did not have any proof that Tan had acquired the assets illegally.

The government sequestered the shares of Fortune and Allied Bank along with those of Tan firms Foremost Farms Inc. and Maranao Hotels and Resort Corp. in 1986, after a bloodless popular revolt sent his friend, the late president Ferdinand Marcos, into US exile.

The seizure of the assets was part of the new government's efforts to restore to the state some 10 billion dollars' worth of state funds allegedly embezzled by Marcos, some of which which he supposedly farmed out to business cronies who served as fronts.

The total value of the sequestered shares are not known. Tan, the third-richest man in the Philippines , also controls the flagship carrier Philippine Airlines, Asia Brewery and Philippine National Bank, which he wants to merge with Allied Bank.

The Supreme Court ruled there was no evidence that the shareholders had acquired the stocks by "taking undue advantage of their connections or relationship with former President Marcos or his family, relatives and close associates."

"Without any reason in the sequestration order why respondents' shares of stock were being sequestered, it would be impossible to determine whether the order of sequestration was issued with any prima facie factual foundation," the ruling added.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government, a state agency working to recover the alleged ill-gotten wealth of Marcos and his cronies, plans to appeal the ruling.

"This is just a temporary setback. But bear in mind that the issue of ownership is still pending before the courts," said J. Ermin Ernest Miguel, a lawyer for the government commission.

"What was affirmed by the Supreme Court is only the lifting of the sequestration order. A sequestration order is only a provisional remedy," Miguel added.

Tan lawyer Estelito Mendoza praised the Supreme Court ruling.

"Our clients are most gratified with the Supreme Court decision. It has been 21 long years since the writs of sequestration have been issued. It proves all along our main contention that there is no prima facie basis that the shares constitute ill-gotten wealth," he said in a statement.*AFP

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