MANILA - Anti-graft court Sandiganbayan has ordered former Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) Chairman Placido Mapa dropped as a defendant in an ill-gotten wealth lawsuit as it upheld his immunity agreement with the government 19 years ago.

In a 10-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Roland Jurado, the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division held that the immunity granted to Mapa covered all criminal and civil actions filed against him by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).

Mapa was granted immunity after he agreed to testify in the racketeering charge filed by the government against Imelda Marcos, wife of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, in New York.

PCGG and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) have claimed that Mapa's immunity deal only covered cases that were related to the contents of his testimony. But the Sandiganbayan overruled this, saying that the immunity agreement did not set any limit.

“(T)he immunity agreement cannot be any clearer, the same being couched in a language so plain as to leave no room for any doubt as to its meaning. (T)his grant of immunity is premised not only on Mapa’s commitment to make himself available as a witness…but also in light of (government’s) review of both civil and criminal cases which it has filed or intends to file against him,” the anti-graft court said.

Civil Case No. 0035, an ill-gotten wealth lawsuit, was filed in 1987. It named the Marcos couple, former Ambassador Benjamin Romualdez, and 42 others as defendants.

It aims to recover the alleged ill-gotten wealth amassed by the defendants through "misappropriation and theft of public funds, plunder of the nation's wealth, extortion, blackmail, bribery, embezzlement, and other acts of corruption, betrayal of public trust, and brazen abuse of power."

On top of this, the case seeks award of P50 billion in damages and P1 billion in reimbursement of legal expenses.