Palace denies misuse of recovered Marcos wealth

Malacañang turned the tables yesterday on Senate President Franklin Drilon and said that while he is focusing on the administration’s alleged misuse of the Marcos money, millions of pesos are being wasted on so-called legislative inquiries that are actually in "aid of destabilization."

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye Jr. issued the statement after Drilon expressed confidence that he would be able to uncover anomalies in the disbursement of a portion of the P35 billion in recovered Marcos wealth once the Commission on Audit (COA) submits a full report to the Senate.

Opposition senators have been holding hearings on the alleged diversion of some P22 billion by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), chaired by President Arroyo, to help buy the support of local officials for her presidential bid in the May 2004 election.

"The deception here is not in the release of the funds but in the investigations being conducted to portray the administration in a bad light and foment destabilization," Bunye said.

"Millions of pesos are being spent unwisely in legislative investigations that prove to be clothed with partisan and personal interest," he said.

Drilon warned that members of the PARC, who have been overseeing the handling of proceeds from the Marcos wealth, and its executive committee, may have erred when they allocated about P22 billion to the National Irrigation Authority, and the Departments of Public Works and Highways, Agriculture and Agrarian Reform.

Under the law, proceeds from the Marcos wealth are to be set aside for the government’s agrarian reform program.

Of the P22 billion, Drilon said P100 million was used for the controversial fertilizer fund that was allegedly tainted by gross overpricing and ghost disbursements.

Bunye said the government has submitted the proper records, documents and figures to the Senate and concerned agencies to prove that all transactions were aboveboard "and no amount of malice will overturn the fact that these were legitimate disbursements."

"The fears of misuse of the recovered ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses are misplaced. Official records would bear us out that there was no fund misappropriation as it was used for its intended beneficiaries — the farmers," he said. — Paolo Romero