Duterte: Marcos family willing to open, return ‘wealth in question’

President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo from an RTVM video)

(Updated 4:41 p.m., Aug. 29) President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday said the members of the family of former president Ferdinand Marcos are “willing to open” and “return” to the government the questionable wealth even the gold bars.

“The PCGG (Presidential Commission on Good Government), they’re investigating the wealth of Marcos,” Duterte said in a speech in Malacañang.

“The Marcoses, I will not name the spokesman, sabi nila (they said), ‘we’ll open everything and hopefully return yung mga nakita na talaga (those that had been discovered),'” he added.

The President said the Marcoses are also willing to return a “few gold bars.”

“Sabi nila na, malaki ang deficit mo, maybe the (sic) projected spending pero hindi ito malaki baka makatulong, but we are ready to open and bring back, sabi niya, pati yung a few gold bars (They said that, your deficit is high, maybe the projected spending but this is not big, maybe it will help, but we are ready to open and bring back, they said, even a few gold bars),” he said.

“Just a few pero isauli nila (but they will return it). Para walang… (So that nothing…) and the only reason sabi nila (they said), their father was protecting the economy for the eventual, kung maalis siya (if he will be removed). But he was thought of regaining the Malacañang and that is why ganito ang lumabas parang naitago (this what appeared to be, as if it was kept),” he added.

The chief executive said he was accepting the explanation of the Marcoses.

“I will accept the explanation, whether or not it is true. Wala na e. (There’s nothing more to it). And I am ready. How much, I will be giving an accounting,” he said.

During the Marcos regime, the late dictator had been accused of amassing ill-gotten wealth during his 20 years in power. JPV