In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Sandiganbayan to dismiss a P1.052-billion civil forfeiture case against the family of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and their alleged associates. The case was filed by the Republic of the Philippines through the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) on July 21, 1987, seeking to forfeit properties believed to have been illegally acquired during the tenure of former President Marcos.

The Court's decision was based on the insufficiency of evidence presented by the petitioner. While numerous pieces of evidence were submitted, many were excluded as they were not disclosed during the discovery process or violated the Best Evidence Rule. After careful evaluation, only 11 exhibits and four testimonies were admitted as admissible evidence. Unfortunately for the petitioner, the remaining evidence was deemed insufficient to prove the allegations of the Expanded Complaint or was irrelevant to the issues presented.

As a civil action for forfeiture of allegedly ill-gotten wealth, the burden of proof fell on the petitioner to establish their claims by a preponderance of evidence. However, the Court concluded that the evidence presented by the petitioner fell short of meeting this burden, leading to the dismissal of the Expanded Complaint by the Sandiganbayan.

The Supreme Court's denial of the petition means that the decision of the Sandiganbayan in Civil Case No. 0008 stands. The case against respondents Bienvenido R. Tantoco, Jr., Doininador R. Santiago, Ferdinand E. Marcos, Imelda R. Marcos, Bienvenido R. Tantoco, Sr., Gliceria R. Tantoco, and Maria Lourdes Tantoco-Pineda has been affirmed, effectively putting an end to the ill-gotten wealth case due to lack of evidence.