The Sandiganbayan has ordered the forfeiture of properties worth over P102 million of former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) comptroller, Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot and his family.

In a 70-page decision promulgated on Feb. 3, the anti-graft court’s Fourth Division said the “properties amounting to P102.12 million are “declared to have been unlawfully acquired and hence forfeited in favor of the state.”

The properties include a cornland in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, land in Tanay, Rizal, condominium units at Essensa East Forbes, Taguig and Makati, as well as houses in Buena Park and Anaheim, California in the United States.

The petition for forfeiture was filed by the government against Ligot and members of his family – wife Erlinda and their children Paul, Riza, and Miguel, and sister Miguela.

Meanwhile, the petition against Ligot’s brother-in-law, Edgardo Tecson, was dismissed.

The case was an offshoot of a lifestyle investigation by the Field Investigation Office (FIO) of the Office of the Ombudsman to determine whether the wealth and properties acquired by Ligot while in government service were manifestly out of proportion to his salary and other lawful income.

“Considering Gen. Ligot’s failure to justify how they were able to acquire said properties out of their lawful income, the same are therefore considered to have been unlawfully acquired and should be forfeited in favor of the state,” the court said.

Ligot retired from military service on Aug. 17, 2004 but for that year, the tribunal said “his cash outflow exceeded his income by P34.05 million or by 7,196.48 percent.”