G.R. No. 88345 - FIRST PHILIPPINE HOLDINGS CORPORATION VS. HON. SANDIGAN BAYAN, REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, BENJAMIN (KOKOY) ROMUALDEZ, JULIETTE GOMEZ ROMUALDEZ, TRANS MIDDLE EAST (PHILS.) EQUITIES, INC., AND EDILBERTO S. NARCISO, JR..

Ruling

WHEREFORE, the instant motion for leave to intervene is hereby denied for lack of merit." and a subsequent Resolution [3] promulgated on April 25, 1989 denying petitioners motion for reconsideration. The Parties Petitioner First Philippine Holdings Corporation, Inc. (formerly Meralco Securities Corporation) is a domestic corporation organized and existing under the laws of the Philippines. Respondent Sandiganbayan is the Court which issued the Resolutions herein assailed. Respondent-intervenor Republic of the Philippines is represented by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG, hereafter). Respondents Benjamin (Kokoy) Romualdez and Juliette Gomez Romualdez, who are spouses, and respondent Edilberto S. Narciso, Jr. are all of legal ages and are capacitated to sue and be sued. Respondent Trans Middle East (Phils.) Equities, Inc. (Equities, hereafter) is a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the Philippines. The Facts In Civil Case No. 0035 pending before the respondent Sandiganbayan, the PCGG prays [4] for the return, reconveyance, accounting and restitution -with damages - of certain funds and properties which were allegedly acquired by private respondents through "abuse of right and power and through unjust enrichment". The herein petition states that part of these funds and properties are some 6,299,177 sequestered shares of stock in the Philippine Commercial International Bank (PCIBank) which were allegedly acquired by the respondent spouses, as beneficial owners, in violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, as amended, and therefore subject to forfeiture in favor of the Republic for being "unexplained wealth." Said shares were allegedly purchased from petitioner by respondent Romualdez using respondents Equities and Narciso as "his dummy buyers", with "no or negligible cash out". On April 27, 1988, respondent Court granted the motion for intervention of respondent Equities, which claims ownership of said shares as well as the corresponding rights appurtenant to ownership, like the right to vote the shares and to receive dividends. On December 28, 1988, petitioner filed its own "Motion for Leave to Intervene and to Admit Complaint in Intervention" in said Civil Case No. 0035 pending before respondent Court, alleging that the PCIBank shares were "obtained x x x by means of fraud and acts contrary to law, morals, good customs and public policy, as well as in breach of fiduciary duty" and thus their acquisition thru a deed of "Sale of Stocks and Escrow Agreement" dated May 24, 1984 is either voidable or void or unenforceable on any of said grounds. [5] Petitioner also alleged that the purchase price of P47,243,827.50 was extravagantly low as the book value at the time of sale was P104,755,313.51 at P16.63 per share. To pay this P47 million, Equities borrowed the exact same amount from SOLOIL, alleged to be another Romualdez front, which in turn borrowed the same, using the facilities of PCIBank i