THE family of the late President Marcos have taken to court their former ?cronies,? the Panlilios of Puerto Azul and Grand Boulevard (Silahis Hotel to readers of a certain age), over the ownership of the historic Luneta Hotel.

According to records at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Marcos son-in-law Gregorio Araneta III and his wife Irene Marcos are the major shareholders of H.E. Heacock Resources Corp., upon whose complaint the Department of Justice charged the Panlilios with a syndicated estafa complaint.

Despite their well-reported financial troubles, the Panlilios last year managed to quietly round up a group of investors with monosyllabic surnames to start redevelopment work on the 90-year-old French Renaissance-style building along T.M. Kalaw St., one of the few pre-war structures left in Manila.

The Marcoses, on the other hand, claim that their family acquired the Luneta Hotel way back in 1973, at the height of martial law, when the Panlilios supposedly delivered the entire corporate shares of the now shuttered boutique hotel and the title to the 499-square-meter corner lot on which it stands.

After the hotel shut down, the building in the early 1980s housed a Marcos eye foundation, which subsequently also closed down after the 1986 Edsa Revolt.

As if their Luneta Hotel troubles were not enough, the Panlilios have again suffered yet another legal setback, this time at the hands of the Supreme Court.

The high tribunal?s First Division, with no less than Chief Justice Reynato Puno as ponente, last week upheld Nayong Pilipino?s decision to eject the Philippine Village Hotel from the sprawling government property beside the Manila International Airport for having failed defaulted on its lease payments.

The Panlilios, represented by then Philippine Village senior executive vice president Jose Marcel Panlilio, had wanted to offset their P26-million arrears against their claimed P2 billion worth of building and hotel equipment that they had introduced since the family leased the 3.6-hectare property from the government in 1975.

?What petitioners [Panlilios] insist is that because of the improvements, which are of substantial value, that they have introduced on the leased premises with the permission of respondent, they should be considered builders in good faith who have the right to retain possession of the property until reimbursement by respondent,? Puno said.

However, the ?introduction of valuable improvements on the leased premises does not give the petitioners the right of retention and reimbursement which rightfully belongs to a builder in good faith,? Puno said, quoting a previous Supreme Court decision. ?Otherwise, such a situation would allow the lessee to easily ?improve? the lessor out of its property.?

The proper recourse for the Panlilios, the Chief Justice volunteered, is for the hoteliers to remove their improvements or to seek reimbursement up to one-half of the value of the improvements in 2001, when Nayong Pilipino decided to file the unlawful detainer case against its defaulting tenant.

Heard through the grapevine

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves is also joining President Arroyo and Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to Davos this week, where the finance secretary will receive the Asian Finance Minister of the Year award from The Banker magazine.

(Web site: www.cocktales.ph; e-mail: cocktales_mst@pldtdsl.net)