MANILA, Philippines – Former First Lady Imelda Marcos can’t get back her P15-billion jewelry collection yet, after government officials said there was no direct order to return the jewels to her.
Before he stepped down as justice secretary, Raul Gonzalez sent a letter to Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chairman Camilo Sabio last June 4 about Mrs. Marcos request to have the jewels back.
Acting Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said there was “no concrete order” to return the jewels and Gonzalez was merely asking if there were legal impediments to Mrs. Marcos’ request.
While he has not seen the letter, PCGG Commissioner Ricardo Abcede said Gonzalez could have directed the PCGG to “deliberate on the ramifications” of Mrs. Marcos’ move.
"Even the Justice Secretary [Gonzalez] said [to] return it if there would be no more legal impediments. There is no concrete order to return it," Devanadera told reporters.
“Actually, there is indeed no sequestration order [for the jewels] but in our discussion last week, there were certain aspects that… must really be studied very well because this will be the legal impediment in releasing [the jewelry],” she said.
Devanadera is the concurrent solicitor-general and represents the Presidential Commission on Good Government in cases related to the Marcos estate’s ill-gotten wealth.
“I don’t want to discuss that yet. [When] I saw the letter, I think what is meant there really is for us to come up with a position right away [for the retention of the jewelry],” she added.
"We are not being asked to surrender [the jewelry to Marcos]," Abecede said, referring to his interpretation of Gonzalez's letter as reported in the news.
He said the PCGG had referred the matter to the Office of the Solicitor General for its legal opinion after receiving Marcos' demand letter last month.
Abcede said the PCGG would deliberate on the status of the jewelry in an en banc meeting, the schedule of which he was not yet sure of as of Monday afternoon.
Mrs. Marcos' lawyers wrote the PCGG and the DoJ a demand letter asking the government to return the pieces of jewelry.
In a phone interview, one of Marcos' lawyers Robert Sison said: "The PCGG has been holding to these jewelries for the past 20 years without any basis."
The PCGG divided the jewelry collection into three: The Malacañang collection, which includes pieces confiscated from the Palace after the Marcos family fled from the People Power revolt in 1986; the Hawaii collection seized by the American Customs; and the Roumeloites collection that the Bureau of Customs seized from a Greek national.
Sison said former president Ferdinand Marcos’ widow was after the Malacañang and Hawaiian collections.
But Abcede said the PCGG had a document, signed by the former First Lady, wherein she surrendered the Hawaiian collection to the government "to avoid prosecution."
This leaves only the Malacañang collection in contention, Abcede said.
The PCGG planned to auction the Marcos jewelry as part of a 2007 plan to privatize some of the state-sequestered assets to generate P30 billion for the government. The auction did not push through, however.
According to a newspaper report, Gonzalez, in a two-page order, directed the PCGG to return to jewels to Mrs. Marcos because of the agency’s failure initiate any legal move to forfeit the jewels in favor of the government.
