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The Philippine Supreme Court ruled yesterday that funds from frozen Swiss bank accounts of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, which have now increased to about $658 million, should be handed over to the government.
The money is in an escrow account in the Philippine National Bank (PNB) pending a decision on the owners.
Marcos' heirs, his wife Imelda and their children, had also claimed the money as did about 10,000 victims of human rights violations during the dictatorship, who say they have a right to the funds as compensation for their ordeal.
The cash-strapped government says the money is part of the assets illegally amassed by Marcos during the two decades of his rule which ended in 1986.
Ismael Khan, Supreme Court spokesman, said, "The Marcoses forfeited their claim on the recovered assets which were given to the government by the Swiss government.
"This (ruling) has been promulgated, that the Swiss deposits in escrow in the PNB have been forfeited in favour of government," said Khan. The government will use the money for the implementation of its centre-piece programme, the comprehensive agrarian reform programme, as mandated by a law in 1987, said Ric Saludo, a deputy presidential spo-kesperson. At the same time, the government will give $200 million to some 10,000 rights victims, based on a bill still pending approval at the Philippine Congress, said Saludo.
The government will use the rest of the money to bridge a deficit in the national budget, he added.
The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), an agency tasked to recover the alleged $35 billion ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses, said the High Tribunal's ruling was a milestone.
The Swiss deposits represented the biggest recovery ever made by the government on the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.
The government is tracing another $13 billion deposit placed under the name of Irene Marcos-Araneta, allegedly deposited at the Union Bank of Switzerland, and some gold bullion worth an estimated $5 billion, which was allegedly stashed in Kloten, Switzerland. Marcos was also accused of imposing shares from top Philippine companies even if he did not have any equity, since he established a Martial Law rule in 1972.
Marcos, who lived in exile after a people-backed military mutiny in 1986, until his death in Hawaii in 1989, could not be charged of ill-gotten wealth in absentia. The government filed cases on unpaid taxes on the other Marcos family members when they were allowed to return to the Philippines in 1992.
Marcos millions lying in an escrow account
- The Swiss deposits represented the biggest recovery ever made by the government on the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.
- The government will give $200 million to some 10,000 rights victims, based on a bill still awaiting approval by Congress.
- The government is tracing another $13 billion placed under the name of Irene Marcos-Araneta, allegedly deposited in the Union Bank of Switzerland, and some gold bullion estimated at $5 billion, stashed in Kloten.
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