MANILA, Philippines -- The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) on Monday asked the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court to award to the government the least expensive of the three jewelry collections seized from Imelda Marcos, admitting that the two other sets were not part of the forfeiture case against the former first lady.
The appeal was made apparently in response to Marcos’s demand last month that the jewelry be returned to her in the absence of a case involving them.
The prosecution, in its motion for a partial summary judgment, made a claim only for the so-called “Malacañang Collection.”
The Malacañang collection includes gems found in the Palace after the Marcos family fled the country in 1986. The others are the Hawaii Collection seized by United States Customs in Hawaii, and the Roumeloites Collection the Bureau of Customs seized from a Greek national attempting to smuggle them out of the Philippines.
The three collections together are valued at more than P15 billion. The Malacañang Collection was valued at about P7 million in 1991.
In a motion filed on Monday, the OSG admitted that the Sandiganbayan’s First Division had ruled in October 1996 that the Hawaii and Roumeliotes Collections “are not covered by this forfeiture proceeding,” referring to Civil Case No. 0141.
“It is most respectfully prayed of this Honorable Court that judgment be rendered declaring the Malacañang Collection as ill-gotten and thereby forfeited in favor of the Republic of the Philippines,” said the government lawyers.
The OSG justified its motion by saying that the respondents had admitted to owning the collection and that the lawful income of the Marcoses when they were in power, totaling $304,372, was “grossly disproportionate to the 1991 value of the pieces of jewelry.”
Marcos’ demand letter had prompted former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to order the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to surrender the jewelry collections if there were no cases.
Marcos is after the Malacañang and Hawaii collections, her lawyer Robert Sison had said.
