Manila recovers $29m in Marcos ill-gotten wealth - Gulf Today

MANILA: The Philippine government has recovered more than $29 million in ill-gotten wealth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos which was stashed in Swiss banks, a senior official reported on Wednesday.

Andres Bautista, the chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), said the money was turned over to the Philippine treasury after the Supreme Court (SC) had ruled the $29 million was part of the unexplained wealth amassed by Marcos and his family.

“The funds appeared to be kickbacks obtained from the government and then deposited in Swiss banks,” Bautista told a televised media briefing.

The money, he disclosed, came from accounts held in the name of several foundations proven to be fronts of the Marcos family.

Bautista added: “The recovered amounts formed part of the Swiss bank accounts of former president Marcos and his family that were ordered forfeited by the Philippine Supreme Court (SC) in 2003 but which were held up in litigation in Singapore since then.”

Bautista explained the Philippine National Bank (PNB) held the funds in an escrow agreement with the government when the Swiss banks turned these over to the government as part of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth.

But the funds, Bautista said, were held up in Singapore due to several complaints filed by Marcos human rights victims during his 20-year dictatorship until he was overthrown by the Edsa 1 People Power revolution in February 1986.

In 2012, the Singapore High Court ruled the $29 million in favor of the government and ordered its transmittal to the PNB which, in turn, transmitted the money to the Philippine treasury, according to Bautista.

He added the PCGG has already recovered $4 billion of the estimated $10 billion Marcos ill-gotten wealth since the agency was set up by the late global democracy icon the late president Corazon Aquino, the mother of incumbent President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino.

Despite the criminal cases filed by the government against them many of which of are still pending in court, the Marcoses are widely acknowledged to be still a force to be reckoned with in Philippine politics.

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