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The long-time companion of Marcos's late military chief Fabian Ver, Edna Camcam, is fighting ejectment by the Madrigal clan from her North Forbes Park residence.
Camcam, together with investment banker-real estate developer Benjamin Bitanga, have filed a reconveyance case with verified application for preliminary injunction against Dr. Daniel Vazquez, who is married to the lone surviving heiress of the billionaire clan, Ma. Luisa Madrigal.
Vazquez had earlier told Cocktales that he and his now-ailing wife owned the house and lot on 3 Cambridge Circle that Camcam had been living in since her return from forced overseas exile after the Edsa I revolt.
Vazquez, in addition, claimed that Camcam's continued stay in the country's most exclusive subdivision -- Camcam's is just a few houses away from Manny Pacquiao's -- was merely an accommodation to their friendship forged during the Marcos heyday.
But Bitanga, by way of explaining his role in the civil case, said the late Ver had requested him to hold the house in trust for Edna, a former banker.
"At that time they (the Vers) had a lot of cases and they could not trust anyone else," said Bitanga, who, incidentally, counted on the late Madrigal matriarch, Consuelo "Chito" Madrigal-Collantes, among his business partners.
"The transaction with Vazquez was done by Edna after," said Bitanga, adding that he was merely fulfilling his fiduciary duty as a trustee for Ver in filing the case against Vazquez.
The contested 2,000-square-meter lot with a five-bedroom house has had, incidentally, a long history of litigation.
It was foreclosed by the United Coconut Planter Bank in 1987 and was subsequently sold in a public auction to a Teresita Villaluz of Philgreen Trading Construction Corp. for P13 million.
But before Villaluz could take possession of house, the Presidential Commission on Good Government intervened, claiming that the property had all along been sequestered as part of the ill-gotten wealth cases against the Vers.
According to Bitanga, the PCGG claim had already been resolved.
The latest case is being heard by Judge Carlito Calpatura of Branch 145 of the Makati Regional Trial Court.
Money-go-round
• Speaking of the Makati Regional Trial Court, did you know that there are 53 "newspapers" accredited and fighting it out to get their hands on the apparently lucrative judicial notice business?
The players range from the usual broadsheets and tabloids as well as publications with such peculiar names as Port News, Jabline and, we kid you not, Farms Update.
• The Muslim party-list candidacy of P.Noy aunt and Muslim scholar Margarita "Tingting" Cojuangco is in jeopardy because not only is she not a Muslim, her being rich and famous is apparently being taken against her representing a supposedly disadvantaged indigineous sector.
• The Quezon City government has scheduled for auction three properties under the name of the late art patroness Pura Kalaw Ledesma for alleged real estate tax delinquencies.
What has not been explained in the auction notice, according to a Ledesma family member, is that the properties in question are actually road lots within Tierra Pura, a Ledesma-developed subdivision.
Heard through the grapevine
The office-hour queue at the badly-designed Makati City Hall elevator bank by the ground and second floors -- the wait and travel time can stretch up to 15 minutes -- has become an accepted judicial excuse for the tardiness of not only litigants but also lawyers.
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