Gov't to sell P647-M assets surrendered by FM cronies

The government plans to sell about P647 million in assets surrendered by former associates of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, officials said yesterday.

The government has so far recovered more than P25 billion in assets of Marcos and his associates, said Magdangal Elma, chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

The government also is claiming ownership of about $600 million in Marcos' former Swiss bank accounts which it says was illegally amassed by Marcos during his 20-year rule, which ended in 1986.

Elma said the assets to be offered for public bidding in two weeks include prime real estate in Baguio City, Caloocan City and Mandaluyong, and over 1.3 million square meters of agricultural land in Bataan.

The assets up for auction were turned over by businessman Jose Campos and Alejo Ganut under compromise agreements in 1986 and 1994 in exchange for immunity from civil and criminal suits.

Elma said the auction of the surrendered assets has been delayed because they required improvements before they could be put up for sale.

Under the law, all proceeds from Marcos' wealth recovered by the government will be used to finance the government's land reform program.

Meanwhile, in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte Gov. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. denied reports that President Estrada had asked the Marcos family to give up their share of the $630-million escrow account.

He said Mr. Estrada or any of his representatives have not approached the Marcoses about such a deal.

The President appointed Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora earlier to talk with the Marcoses and convince them not to pursue their 30 percent claim on the escrow account so that the government can finally compensate human rights victims.

However, the young Marcos said "the government has not really made a proposal for us to accept or reject" such a proposal.

But if Mr. Estrada sends an emissary and presents a plan, he said the Marcos family is willing to negotiate.

"At this point, anything that they will propose will be considered seriously," he said.

The Marcos family is laying claim to parts of the account, based on a 70-30 sharing scheme drafted by the previous administration.

But since the anti-graft court had already thumbed down this plan, the Estrada administration would like the Marcoses to give up their share in this scheme in favor of the human rights victims.

According to Zamora, Sandiganbayan presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena is ready to reconsider his earlier decision that voided the $150-million settlement deal.

The anti-graft court nullified "with finality" the settlement between the two parties under which $150 million would have been paid out to the claimants from a $630-million escrow account representing seized Marcos Swiss bank accounts.

The deal, backed by the government, was the result of $2 billion in damages a US court had awarded to the claimants who had sought reparations from the Marcos estate in a US lawsuit filed in the mid-1990s. --