PCGG to auction off Imelda jewelry

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) will jointly auction off before yearend the Roumeliotes and Honolulu jewelry collections allegedly owned by former first lady Imelda Marcos.

PCGG commissioner Grace Tan said yesterday there is still no formal agreement on the joint auction but the PCGG and the BOC are still talking about it.

The Roumeliotes collection was named after Imelda’s Greek friend Demetrious Roumeliotes and was seized from him at the airport by customs officers as he was about to leave the country in March 1986.

The collection is composed of 60 pieces of jewelry and was estimated to be worth $12 million to $20 million in 1986.

The Honolulu jewelry, on the other hand, pertains to the precious stones confiscated from the Marcos family by the United States government when they were sent into exile in Hawaii in February 1986.

The PCGG, however, could not immediately ascertain the quantity and value of the Honolulu collection.

"All I can say is that I have never seen a diamond as big as those I saw in Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). One stone can finance a housing project in a small town. I felt so weak after seeing them. The (earrings) are like mini-chandeliers," Tan said.

She added that the government could not yet dispose of the jewelry recovered from Malacañang after people power 1, because they are still being used by the PCGG in malversation cases against the Marcos family.

The collections are now stored in the BSP’s vault for safekeeping, which costs the PCGG P30,000 a month.

She said that international auction houses Sotheby’s of London and Christie’s of New York have made an estimate on the value of the collections a few weeks ago, but the results have not yet been released.

Tan added that the PCGG, as a standing policy, would not allow the Marcoses or their cronies, from whom the jewelry were recovered, to participate in the auction.

"We’ll auction them off jointly to command higher value… I could not imagine where the money used to acquire the jewelry came from," she said. – Sheila Crisostomo