PCGG shrugs off secret deal with Marcoses

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) shrugged off the persistent perceptions of a secret deal with the Marcos family that intensified after the recent testimony of Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on their case against beer and tobacco magnate Lucio Tan.

A PCGG officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the testimony of the son of the late deposed president, while in favor of the government’s case against Tan, was just corroborating testimony to that of his mother, former First Lady Imelda Marcos, who first asserted her husband’s involvement with the businessman.

The source said that since the claim of the former first lady was made in a sworn affidavit submitted before the Sandiganbayan several years ago, the government’s case was already strong without the testimony of her son.

It was learned that Mrs. Marcos claimed their family’s effective ownership of 60 percent of Tan’s companies, including Fortune Tobacco and Asia Brewery, in December 1998.

“We don’t know the motive of Rep. Marcos in testifying before the Sandiganbayan. Although it admittedly helps our case, the government’s case does not rely entirely in his testimony,” the source told The STAR.           – Rainier Allan Ronda