What Went Before: PCGG recoveries

The very first executive order issued by President Corazon Aquino following the People Power Revolution that brought down the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, created the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) on Feb. 28, 1986.

The PCGG was tasked with the recovery of the ill-gotten assets of Marcos, his immediate family, his relatives and his cronies.

As of February 2014, the PCGG has recovered P167.5 billion, or about $4 billion, of ill-gotten wealth, less than half of the estimated $10-billion fortune the late dictator is believed to have amassed.

The amount recovered is the aggregate cash value of all accounts hidden in local and foreign banks, commercial and residential properties, shares in companies here and abroad, artworks and valuable personal effects that had been surrendered to the PCGG or awarded by various courts in the Philippines, Switzerland and the United States.

Of the amount, 40 percent represented the biggest single recovery made in 2012–P71.6 billion from 24-percent block of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) shares, including dividends and accrued interest, which the government claimed were acquired using the coconut levy funds.

The 24 percent was part of the 47-percent block of SMC shares sequestered by the PCGG on the ground that these were illegally acquired by the dummies of Marcos using funds from a tax imposed on coconut farmers from 1973 to the 1980s.

A fifth of the recovery, or an estimated P35 billion, comprised the Swiss bank deposits of the Marcoses, which include the P1.3 billion ($29 million) recovered in February 2013 from the WestLB Singapore accounts.

The WestLB Singapore accounts were part of the ill-gotten wealth that the late strongman kept in various Swiss bank accounts under dummy foundations. In 1997, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ordered that these deposits be returned to the Philippine government.

A total of P27.3 billion of the recovered assets came from the shares of the Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp. (PTIC) in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). The Supreme Court declared in January 2006 that the PTIC shares in PLDT were part of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth as these were registered in the name of Prime Holdings Inc., an alleged Marcos dummy company.

The amount from the sale of shares in the Manila Electric Co., Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corp., and Marcopper Mining Corp. accounted for P17.7 billion, while other recoveries amounted to P15.9 billion.

Some P50 billion worth of assets are either tied up in litigation or are up for privatization.

Last September, the PCGG realized P157.7 million from three auctioned properties forfeited from the late Jolly Bugarin, who served as a National Bureau of Investigation director. The properties are located at North Greenhills, Valle Verde III and Capitol Hills.

In March 2013, the Mapalad property, a commercial and residential lot on Roxas Boulevard in Parañaque surrendered to the government in 1986 by the late Marcos crony Jose Y. Campos, was sold for P247.11 million.—Inquirer Research

Source: Inquirer Archives