Government still verifying $950-B Marcos wealth

The government is still verifying an American’s claim that he has knowledge of $950-billion worth of Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth in Switzerland.

"We really do not know if such hidden wealth exists,’’ Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chairman Camilo Sabio told reporters over the weekend at the weekly Kapihan sa Sulu Hotel forum in Quezon City.

Last Friday, Sabio said he and other PCGG officials met with the American at the office of their US lawyers in New York, but that the man reportedly refused to discuss the matter on American soil with fellow American lawyers.

The man turned out to be a certain Richard Arnold who claimed to be a friend of Minnie Osmeña of the influential Osmeña clan of Cebu.

Sabio said the meeting with Arnold yielded nothing significant and no details were given to the PCGG officials on the alleged ill-gotten wealth.

In deciding to meet with Arnold, PCGG lawyers had hoped that the businessman’s tale was at least "10 percent accurate’’ and might be a source of new leads in the search for the late dictator’s hidden wealth.

"Our lawyers decided to meet him hoping that even if his tale is only 10 percent accurate, we want to get that amount,’’ he added.

Sabio said Arnold, who came across as something like a "secret agent,’’ wanted to talk to a Swiss lawyer but did not want to go to Switzerland for fear of being arrested. The man reportedly also did not want to go to London for the same reason.

"Parang James Bond siya (He’s like James Bond),’’ Sabio said, referring to Ian Fleming’s debonaire British secret agent popularized by a series of Hollywood.