In a ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) en banc written by Associate Justice Presbitero J. Velasco Jr. dated Nov. 27, 2012 and with a vote of eight justices and six inhibitions, the SC denied the petition of Cojuangco questioning the ruling of the Sandiganbayan in July 2003 which declared that the subject shares as part of assets were illegally acquired from coconut levy funds.