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The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) is willing to give up its claim on the disputed $35 million deposited by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the U.S.-based Merill Lynch fund, under a dummy foundation, in favour of some 10,000 rights victims, a senior official said.
"We are more than willing to give up claims on the funds if there are instructions from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to allow the said ill-gotten money to be given to the human rights claimants," said PCGG officer in charge Jorge Sarmiento in an interview. The principal mandate of the PCGG is to recover ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses, their relatives and cronies.
The victims' lawyers led by Robert Swift and Rod Domingo Jr., signed and forged a settlement with former president Joseph Estrada in February 1998 to release of some $150 million from the recovered $640 million Swiss deposits of Marcos which is now in an escrow account at the Philippine National Bank (PNB). But the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court declared the recovered assets as ill-gotten and should be given back to Philippine government.
Sandiganbayan said the Marcoses must not pay for their liabilities to the rights victims from the funds recovered by the government. The victims are now seeking the recovery of the $35 million deposited by Marcos with U.S.-based Merill Lynch.
The fund is also being claimed by the Philippine government, the estate of Roger Roxas and the Golden Buddha Corp. which won a judgement against the Marcoses in a Swiss court. Merill Lynch recently gave up its jurisdiction over the fund in favour of U.S. District Court of Hawaii judge Manuel Real.
Last year, the PCGG discovered the fund was deposited at Merill Lynch by a Panamanina firm called Arelma Inc. Sarwiento said the said funds are part of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth and should be remitted to the Philippine government. Arelma Inc. was one of the dummy foundations used by the Marcoses to keep their accounts in foreign banks.
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