Salonga prods GMA to tell the truth on Marcos wealth

Tell the truth about the status of the Marcos wealth.

Former Senate president Jovito Salonga asked this of President Arroyo yesterday in a courteous yet hard-hitting open letter to the President, a copy of which was sent to The STAR.

Writing on behalf of the non-profit and non-partisan groups Kilosbayan (National Action) and Bantay Katarungan (Justice Watch), of which he is a trustee and adviser, Salonga began his letter by stating that "our trustees do not ask for any favor, position of concession from the government or administration. Nor do they belong to the opposition."

Meanwhile, a PCGG commissioner urged Congress to speed the passage into law of a bill seeking to put the compensation fund for victims of human right abuses in a trust fund.

In the letter written on his "own initiative," Salonga referred to earlier newspaper reports that, of the $683 million (P357.789 billion) in Swiss bank deposits seized by the government from the family of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, only P8 billion remains for victims of human rights abuses during the martial law period.

Citing the status report on proceeds submitted by the Development Budget Coordinating Council (DBCC) obtained by Kilosbayan, Salonga found that "other than the amount of P8 billion for the human rights victims during the Marcos regime, there are no more funds available from the Marcos Swiss deposits for the poor, landless farmers under the (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law or CARP) law enacted in 1988, when I was Senate President."

Salonga also served as the first Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) chairman in 1986.

Meanwhile, in an interview with reporters at the PCGG office in Mandaluyong City, PCGG Commissioner Ricardo Abcede also said the media should "ask" the members of the House of Representatives where the Marcos money went, since the lawmakers were the recipients of CARP funds.

He also urged the media not try to imply that the funds were misused by the Arroyo administration.

Abcede also criticized the "allegations about the timing, about this being released before the elections — so what? It was given to them as fertilizer funds for agricultural activities."— Sandy Araneta