Bataan Shipyard & Engineering Co., Inc. vs Presidential Commission on Good Government

written by Howard

G.R. No. 75885 – 234 Phil. 180 – 150 SCRA 181 – Mercantile Law – Corporation Law – A Corporation Cannot Invoke the Right Against Self-Incrimination 

When President Corazon Aquino took power, the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) was formed in order to recover ill gotten wealth allegedly acquired by former President Marcos and his cronies. Aquino then issued two executive orders in 1986 and pursuant thereto, a sequestration and a takeover order were issued against Bataan Shipyard & engineering Co., Inc. (BASECO). BASECO was alleged to be in actuality owned and controlled by the Marcoses through the Romualdez family, and in turn, through dummy stockholders.

The sequestration order issued in 1986 required, among others, that BASECO produce corporate records from 1973 to 1986 under pain of contempt of the PCGG if it fails to do so. BASECO assails this order as it avers, among others, that it is against BASECO’s right against self incrimination and unreasonable searches and seizures.

ISSUE: Whether or not BASECO is correct.

HELD: No. First of all, PCGG has the right to require the production of such documents pursuant to the power granted to it. Second, and more importantly, right against self-incrimination has no application to juridical persons. There is a reserve right in the legislature to investigate the contracts of a corporation and find out whether it has exceeded its powers. It would be a strange anomaly to hold that a state, having chartered a corporation like BASECO to make use of certain franchises, could not, in the exercise of sovereignty, inquire how these franchises had been employed, and whether they had been abused, and demand the production of the corporate books and papers for that purpose.

Neither is the right against unreasonable searches and seizures applicable here. There were no searches made and no seizure pursuant to any search was ever made. BASECO was merely ordered to produce the corporate records.

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