PCGG says Imelda herself can check on sequestered assets

An official of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has assured former First Lady Imelda Marcos that she could go to the agency and make an audit of all the Marcos assets sequestered by the government.

"We have an inventory on that (assets sequestered)," said PCGG Commissioner Ricardo Abcede, during a press briefing on Friday at the PCGG office in Mandaluyong City.

"They (Marcoses) could come to the office to get hold of that (inventory). In fact that is public record. If they want to know more details they are welcome to that," said Abcede.

Abcede was reacting to the plan of Mrs. Marcos to make an audit of the assets sequestered from the Marcoses and find out who are the "real thieves" who stole from the people.

"Mrs. Marcos wants the government not only to conduct an audit of the Technology Resource Center Foundation Inc. (TRCFI) but also the other projects of Mrs. Marcos when she was still Minister of Human Settlement that are now handled by the PCGG," said Fernando Diaz, a spokesman for Mrs. Marcos.

Diaz said that the TRCFI does not have any funds anymore after the foundation was sequestered by the commission.

The Sandiganbayan had recently acquitted Mrs. Marcos and her deputy minister Jose Conrado Benitez of graft charges filed against them for holding dual government posts as officials of the defunct Ministry of Human Settlements and the TRCFI in violation of the Constitution.

Diaz said Mrs. Marcos wants an independent body to conduct an audit and probe of the government-sequestered assets.

"What Mrs. Marcos wanted is an independent probe and not for her to look and check on the assets," Diaz said.

The Marcos family is confident of winning all the cases filed by the PCGG against them.

Diaz said only 100 cases remain out of the more than 900 cases filed against the Marcos family. More than 800 cases were dismissed and not even one case was directly linked to either Imelda or the Marcos family.