President Estrada said yesterday he was committed to pressing criminal charges against the heirs of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to recover their allegedly stolen wealth.
"The political will of my administration is very strong and my administration has been exerting all efforts to recover the money in the hands of the Marcos family so it can be returned to the people," Mr. Estrada said in a statement.
This included a P23-billion real estate tax bill the family owes, the Chief Executive said.
"We want more than the real estate tax. We will recover everything they took from the public coffers," he said.
The President said the government's wealth-recovery agency would use all its means to speed up the protracted cases against the Marcos family.
Marcos ruled the country for 20 years, much of it under martial law, until he was overthrown in a popular revolt in 1986 and forced into exile. He died in Hawaii in September 1989.
The government still has a number of criminal and civil cases pending against the family and its friends, accusing them of looting billions from government coffers.