The Sandiganbayan has ordered government lawyers handling the 22-year-old ill-gotten wealth case against Lucio Tan to abandon the search for documents, which are not available.

?If documents cannot be found, you should dispense with this evidence,? Associate Justice Cristina Cortez-Estrada told State Solicitor Mauricia Dinopol of the Office of the Solicitor General.

Just the same, Cortez-Estrada, chairman of the court?s Fifth Division, granted Dinopol?s request for a deferment of the hearing.

Dinopol said the documents, which consist of Deeds of Sale and the Deeds of Assigned Shares of Stocks in the companies under litigation, are yet to be found at the Foreign Affairs Department.

Dinopol told the anti-graft court that it would take at least one month to look for the documents.

These documents, Dinopol said, will prove that six Lucio Tan companies are part of the ill-gotten wealth amassed by the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

Lawyer Raul Dado, a representative of the Foreign Affairs, showed up at the court hearing but failed to give his testimony due to the absence of the documents.

Cortez-Estrada warned government lawyers that if they fail to come up with the evidence on the next hearing today, they will be deemed to have terminated presentation of their evidence.

She also admonished them to stop wasting the time of the court as the hearing has been deferred on several occasions as a result of the prosecution?s failure to present their witnesses.

Dinopol promised to continue with their presentation in the next hearing dates and call in at least 10 witnesses more.

Tan?s counsel, former Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza, noted that all the prosecution?s requests for postponement of the hearing only confirmed ?there is no evidence whatsoever? to support their complaint. ?I have no idea about the relevance of these documents from the DFA.?

Mendoza advised state lawyers to first contact their witnesses before issuing them to testify subpoena.

The government is claiming ownership of Tan?s six corporations, namely Foremost Farms, Silangan Holdings Inc., Asia Brewery, Fortune Tobacco, Himmel Industries and Granspan Development Corp., on the ground that these have been part of the Marcos stash.

The Marcoses are also staking claim on Tan?s assets as they maintained that these were merely entrusted by the late president to Tan.

Mendoza said the government, through the Presidential Commission on Good Government and the Marcoses, have joined forces to go after the properties of Tan.

Mendoza said this became evident when the former First Lady Imelda Marcos joined the government in asking the anti-graft court to disqualify him as Tan?s lawyer. Macon Ramos Araneta