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MANILA— If Ferdinand Marcos Jr. triumphs within the upcoming Philippines presidential election, he’ll wield broad powers over authorities companies in search of to recuperate as a lot as $10 billion plundered by his namesake father throughout his autocratic rule.
Marcos is heading in the right direction to win the Could 9 election, in response to opinion polls.
A survey taken in mid-April put him 33 proportion factors forward of his nearest rival, propelled by strategic political alliances and a well-funded marketing campaign.
A victory for the 64-year-old Marcos, identified within the Philippines as Bongbong, would symbolize a unprecedented resurrection for his household, coming 36 years after his father was toppled in a well-liked rebellion and fled Manila by helicopter with the household.
Marcos and his household have typically stated that their huge fortune was legitimately obtained. On the marketing campaign path he has dismissed criticism about how the household obtained its wealth as “faux information.”
Requested in an interview in January concerning the authorities’s efforts to recuperate the plundered belongings, he stated the household was “not concerned within the circumstances,” including that “what the court docket orders, we’ll comply with.”
However a Reuters evaluation of court docket filings, authorities paperwork and authorized depositions by the presidential candidate, together with interviews with former investigators and legal professionals, underscore the function Marcos has performed in defending the household’s wealth and thwarting efforts to retrieve it.
Marcos and his household have defied court docket orders and appealed rulings requiring them to give up belongings.
They’re nonetheless defendants in no less than 40 civil circumstances associated to their wealth. As well as, Marcos’ 92-year-old mom, Imelda Marcos, is interesting her felony conviction on seven separate graft costs in 2018, every of which carries a most jail sentence of 11 years.
As president, Marcos would maintain sway over the Presidential Fee on Good Authorities (PCGG), which is dedicated to investigating and recovering the Marcos household’s wealth. The president has the authority to nominate the commissioners of the PCGG. A former commissioner advised Reuters the president may assign the company duties.
The president additionally appoints the Ombudsman, who oversees graft and corruption complaints in opposition to the federal government, in addition to the pinnacle of the tax workplace. The Marcos household has for years refused to pay a tax invoice that native media experiences say now quantities to $3.9 billion, together with penalties. Most just lately, the Bureau of Inner Income despatched a letter of demand in December to “the Marcos heirs” concerning the unpaid taxes.
Marcos has already intimated what he would possibly do with these presidential powers. “You could possibly say that the primary time it was organized, it was actually an anti-Marcos company,” he advised native DZRJ Radio in March, referring to the PCGG. “Nonetheless, we may flip it into an actual anti-corruption company.”
Marcos and his mom Imelda didn’t reply to questions for this story.
The PCGG, which was arrange in 1986, has retrieved about $5 billion of the Marcos fortune, PCGG chairman John A. Agbayani advised Reuters final week. However one other $2.4 billion remains to be caught up in litigation, he stated. Nonetheless extra stays lacking, former authorities investigators say. Citing U.S. intelligence estimates, the primary head of the PCGG, Jovito Salonga, stated again within the Eighties that the household’s wealth “ranged from 5 to 10 billion {dollars} and even past that.”
Ruben Carranza, a former PCGG commissioner, believes {that a} Marcos victory will usher in a brand new section within the 36-year battle to retrieve the household’s belongings. Carranza advised Reuters he’s involved Marcos will use the PCGG to make sure the household holds onto “no matter ill-gotten wealth they’ve stored.”
PCGG chief Agbayani stated he believed whoever is elected president would “not intrude” within the litigation of pending court docket circumstances.
“Even underneath a Bongbong Marcos presidency, I’m assured that he’ll respect the rule of legislation, and the doctrine of Separation of Powers of the Govt and the Judiciary,” he stated in an announcement.
Agbayani stated the powers of the PCGG ought to be expanded past its present give attention to the Marcos household to incorporate recovering “ill-gotten wealth of excessive authorities officers.”
Crates of money
The hunt for the household’s riches started simply hours after the Marcoses fled the Philippines as thousands and thousands took to the streets in February 1986 amid widespread issues Marcos Sr. had rigged the presidential election.
The household went into exile in Hawaii. They didn’t go away empty-handed, taking with them a stash of gold, jewellery value $4 million and 22 crates of money, in response to U.S. Customs, which seized the belongings.
Of their haste, the household left one other cache of bijou, artworks and designer garments within the presidential palace and with associates.
This included no less than 1,200 pairs of footwear, a part of Imelda Marcos’ big assortment of luxurious footwear. Crucially for investigators, the Marcoses left many paperwork in safes and submitting cupboards on the palace.
The brand new authorities of Corazon Aquino, who changed Marcos as president, arrange the PCGG three days after the tip of Marcos’ two-decade rule with its first govt order. Quickly after, the company introduced it had obtained proof of Swiss financial institution accounts managed by Marcos Sr. and Imelda, kick-back schemes and month-to-month “donations” to the dictator from rich businessmen who had benefited from authorities insurance policies.
The seized paperwork, in addition to affidavits by a key monetary adviser to the Marcoses and enterprise associates, revealed a globe-spanning treasure: a community of financial institution deposits, belief accounts and foundations scattered around the globe; an enormous actual property portfolio, together with 4 buildings in Manhattan; and a set of greater than 150 work, together with works by masters comparable to Michelangelo, Van Gogh and Picasso, a lot of that are nonetheless lacking.
The paperwork, affidavits and additional investigations additionally revealed the household’s silent possession of a number of the largest firms run by enterprise associates, popularly identified within the Philippines as “cronies.” The World Financial institution stated in a 2007 report the household’s “ill-gotten wealth” was additionally accrued by way of the “raiding” of the nationwide treasury and “skimming off international assist.”
“The greed was merely unparalleled, the plunder unmitigated, the sample unbelievably remorseless,” the PCGG stated in a 2016 submission to the Supreme Court docket in one other case involving the household’s wealth. “All these within the face of the Filipino folks’s persevering with distress and struggling!”
Following the demise of his father in 1989, Marcos turned deeply enmeshed in litigation within the Philippines and United States as co-administrator of the property. He stated on the time he had little information of the household’s wealth, together with in two beforehand unreported depositions in 1991 and 1993 given underneath oath for a U.S. court docket case, which Reuters reviewed.
Requested in 1993 if his father concerned him “in any respect” within the administration of the household belongings between 1980 and 1986, the final years of his presidency, Marcos replied: “I don’t know what the household belongings are. No. I wasn’t concerned in any of that.”
Marcos’ deposition was at odds with testimony he gave in 2007 in a case the place the Philippines authorities was attempting to grab belongings linked to the household from billionaire Lucio Tan, whose sprawling conglomerate touched many aspects of the financial system.
Tan was one of many dictator’s shut enterprise associates and paid kickbacks to him, in response to the PCGG. Requested in an article printed within the Los Angeles Occasions in 1987 if paperwork displaying he paid $11 million to Marcos Sr. have been correct, Tan answered, “Add one zero, perhaps two.”
In a transcript of Marcos’ testimony within the 2007 case, reviewed by Reuters, he remembers being referred to as into his father’s workplace earlier than they have been exiled to Hawaii in 1986 and proven “Shares of Inventory” and property titles. “He at that time advised me that he would really like me to familiarize myself with the operations of a number of the enterprises that now we have pursuits in and that Mr. Lucio Tan was going to assist me,” Marcos advised the court docket.
Throughout a number of conferences, Tan “laid out the possession construction” of companies the household had a stake in, Marcos stated. In line with the transcript, Marcos then reeled off a number of the names of those companies and described intimately how a number of the firms have been structured.
It was half of a bigger effort to do a list “of all these enterprise pursuits that now we have,” Marcos advised the court docket. “My sister Imee, who has authorized coaching, was given the job of conducting the authorized audit, and I used to be given the job to go to as many of those enterprises as I may.”
Tan and Imee Marcos didn’t reply to questions from Reuters.
Throughout his father’s reign, Marcos studied at Oxford College within the Nineteen Seventies, the place he obtained a “particular diploma” in social research however didn’t full a full diploma, the college stated. He additionally studied for an MBA on the Wharton Faculty of the College of Pennsylvania in the US between 1979 and 1981, however didn’t full the course, he stated.
In 1991, two years after Marcos Sr. died, Imelda and her youngsters have been allowed to return to the Philippines. Imelda herself has since confronted a number of felony costs, whereas the household has been concerned in scores of civil fits in search of to recuperate their riches.
Imelda, who lives in Manila, has solely been convicted within the 2018 graft case. The court docket dominated that the case concerned the switch of greater than $300 million of “ill-gotten wealth” to abroad financial institution accounts whereas she was Minister of Human Settlements, a place she held throughout her husband’s presidency. PCGG chairman Agbayani stated Marcos had been acquitted in three earlier felony circumstances and that there have been different felony circumstances nonetheless pending.
After returning, Imelda twice ran unsuccessfully for president and was elected to Congress for 4 phrases. Her son has additionally spent most of his time in politics since returning, together with two stints within the Home of Representatives, interspersed with a time period as governor of the household’s stronghold within the province of Ilocos Norte. Marcos additionally served as governor and vice-governor of the province throughout his father’s rule. He was elected to the Senate in 2010 earlier than unsuccessfully operating for vp in 2016, dropping to Leni Robredo.
Robredo, a human rights lawyer, is now Marcos’ principal rival within the presidential race and has focused the household’s wealth throughout the marketing campaign. “If the son advantages from the daddy’s sin, he’s additionally responsible,” she stated in February. “If you’re benefiting from the very act for which your father was being judged, you also needs to be judged.”
The household negotiated two offers with the Philippines authorities in 1992 and 1993 that will have allowed them to maintain a part of their wealth, court docket information present. In line with the later deal, they’d have stored 25% of $356 million present in Swiss financial institution deposits. However the offers have been by no means licensed by the presidents on the time and have been declared null and void by the courts.
The courts have additionally repeatedly rejected the Marcos household’s assertion that their wealth was legitimately obtained.
Primarily based on the tax filings of the dictator and his spouse, the Philippines authorities has stated that the Marcoses earned the equal of $304,372.43 in “identified lawful earnings” throughout Ferdinand Marcos’ presidency. The Supreme Court docket accepted that calculation in a 2012 ruling that rejected a petition from Marcos and his mom to maintain $40 million in a Merrill Lynch checking account claimed by the Philippines authorities. The assertion by Marcos and his mom that the late president’s official earnings was far larger was “a sham and evidently calibrated to compound and confuse the problems,” the court docket stated.
Legendary gold
In interviews over the a long time, Marcos and his mom have referred to an enormous haul of gold belonging to the dictator to elucidate their wealth. Marcos has stated that his father constructed his wealth from buying and selling in valuable metals earlier than he turned president in 1965, in response to Rappler, a neighborhood media outlet. In interviews, Imelda Marcos has stated her husband had six to seven tonnes of gold when he entered politics.
In a 2015 interview with native media, Marcos stated his father found the so-called Yamashita treasure – a legendary cache of bullion supposedly left by Japanese troops retreating from the Philippines in 1945.
Requested concerning the gold in a March interview on the native One Information channel, Marcos modified tack. “It doesn’t exist,” he stated.
Even so, the reason of a gold haul underpinning the household wealth has gained forex on social media. One outlandish concept posits that the descendants of the Tallano dynasty that when dominated a lot of the Philippines gave Marcos Sr. and a Catholic priest a 30% share of 640,000 tonnes of gold that the pair helped them recuperate from the Vatican and return to the Philippines after World Conflict Two.
The speculation has been promoted on social media by the political get together initially based by the dictator and which is now supporting Marcos Jr. The World Gold Council says solely round 205,000 tonnes of gold has been mined all through historical past.
The VERA Recordsdata, an impartial Philippines fact-checking group that has a contract with Fb, stated disinformation about Marcos and his household’s wealth surged final yr.
A number of posts on Fb and Youtube proclaimed that the household will give a big share of its wealth to the general public if Marcos wins workplace. One of many principal drivers of the social media visitors was a Fb group referred to as “Bongbong Marcos for Progress, Peace and Prosperity 2022,” in response to the VERA Recordsdata.
In an announcement, a spokesman for Fb-owner Meta, Kevin McAlister, stated the group had “repeatedly shared content material that our fact-checking companions have debunked, which implies it may well’t monetize or promote and we transfer all its posts decrease in Feed so fewer folks see them.” A warning label had been added to “a number of posts from this group,” he stated.
Ruel Andayo, 44, a coconut vendor in Manila, advised Reuters he was voting for Marcos due to the “promise” that the household’s wealth could be shared with the folks. Requested the place he acquired the knowledge, he replied: “Somebody simply stated.”
“Bongbong’s wealth was not stolen. It was simply an try by the yellows to break him,” Andayo added. He was referring to the yellow shade related to the “Folks Energy” protesters who ousted Marcos in 1986.
On the marketing campaign path, Marcos has appeared at mass rallies with Sara Duterte-Carpio, the daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte and his operating mate for vp. At a rally within the metropolis of Lipa south of Manila in April, the group was handled to fireworks and performances by native pop stars.
Marcos’ son, Ferdinand Alexander Marcos, popularly often called Sandro, can also be enjoying a job. He’s operating for Congress and has featured closely within the marketing campaign, particularly on-line, the place his posts have drawn adoring responses from younger girls.
Political analysts say a decades-long public relations effort to change perceptions about his father’s presidency, a lot of it disseminated by way of social media, has benefited Marcos. However key to his frontrunner standing, they add, is his partnership with Duterte-Carpio.
Ronald Holmes, president of Pulse Asia, a Manila-based polling agency, advised Reuters that Marcos’ assist doubled after he partnered in November with Duterte-Carpio. The transfer garnered him mass assist from the Duterte stronghold within the southern island of Mindanao and large cities like Cebu the place he had beforehand languished. Within the multi-ethnic Philippines, “many citizens choose candidates on ethnic-linguistic strains,” Holmes stated.
By no means ‘repentant’
Whereas Marcos has stated the household just isn’t a celebration to any ongoing court docket circumstances, PCGG chairman Agbayani advised Reuters that in “all pending civil circumstances for restoration” of the wealth, Marcos and his sister Imee “substituted their deceased father as heirs in a consultant capability, pursuant to our guidelines of court docket.”
Antonio Carpio, a former Supreme Court docket justice, advised Reuters the Marcos household has opposed “each transfer” of the Philippines authorities to recuperate its wealth, together with lodging frequent appeals of court docket choices.
“They’ve by no means been repentant,” stated Carpio. “They’ve by no means acknowledged these (belongings) are ill-gotten wealth.”
Marcos has been personally concerned in a number of the appeals. In January 2020, he filed a movement to the Supreme Court docket supporting the objection by his mom and his sister Irene to a ruling that rejected the household’s possession of greater than 150 artworks, together with the lacking masterpieces. The case, which is listed as nonetheless pending by the PCGG, has been litigated for 31 years.
Irene Marcos didn’t reply to questions from Reuters.
In the US, the household has used related ways to thwart authorized motion in opposition to them. One such case includes a category motion heard by the U.S. District Court docket in Hawaii in search of redress for victims of martial legislation, a interval that prolonged for nearly half of Marcos Sr.’s presidency. Throughout this time, some 70,000 folks have been imprisoned, 34,000 have been tortured and over 3,200 have been killed, in response to Amnesty Worldwide.
The case was launched two months after the Marcos household went into exile in Hawaii. In 1995, the district court docket awarded nearly $2 billion to 9,539 victims. The Marcoses lodged no less than three unsuccessful appeals earlier than a closing contempt order and a further $353 million penalty have been imposed on Marcos and his mom by the court docket in 2011 – a ruling additionally they appealed. Nonetheless, solely about $37 million of the $2 billion award has been recovered from the gross sales proceeds of artworks and property owned by the household in the US, stated Philadelphia-based lawyer Robert Swift, who launched the category motion.
Mila Sibayan, 63, is among the plaintiffs. She was arrested in 1983 and detained for 3 years in a army base for serving to lead a petition opposing a pulp mill owned by a {golfing} associate of the dictator. Sibayan says she was sexually molested by a soldier and held in painful stress positions throughout interrogations. In a single occasion, she was jammed right into a metallic drum with one other lady and rolled across the army base. Sibayan stated her husband, who was an activist and likewise one of many plaintiffs, was crushed with a wood plank and a rifle butt. He handed away in September.
Sibayan stated she and her husband filed an affidavit about their detention, however not had a replica. They obtained a complete of about 180,000 pesos in 2010 and 2014 (about $3,400 at present). On the time, they have been a working couple with two youngsters residing on a mixed earnings of $95 per 30 days.
“You may by no means put a value on the form of struggling we endured,” Sibayan stated.
The president, who serves a single six-year time period, additionally chooses the heads of different authorities our bodies that might play a job in recovering the household’s wealth. The central financial institution governor, who’s chosen by the president, doubles as the pinnacle of the nation’s anti-money laundering council, in response to the council’s web site. The president additionally selects the pinnacle of the nation’s anti-corruption fee.
Marcos has questioned whether or not there have been widespread human rights abuses throughout his father’s rule. As president, he would additionally appoint the chairman of the human rights fee.
In the case of the judicial system, the president has in depth powers. In addition to appointing prosecutors and the solicitor-general, who represents the federal government in court docket, the president additionally appoints judges.
Agbayani stated he believed the PCGG ought to full its work on “the Marcos ill-gotten wealth” in seven years. “Which means that all litigation is terminated by that point,” he stated. “All recovered belongings are offered/privatized by that point.”
Antonio La Vina, professor of legislation and politics on the Ateneo de Manila College, is anxious this received’t occur. If Marcos wins, he stated, then prosecutors and the PCGG won’t pursue the pending court docket circumstances involving the household’s wealth for his total presidential time period.
“For six years, circumstances won’t transfer,” La Vina advised Reuters, “so they may die a pure demise.”
—Reporting by Tom Allard and Karen Lema. Extra reporting by Peter Blaza, Steve Stecklow, Elizabeth Culliford and Andrew MacAskill. Edited by Peter Hirschberg
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