PCGG dared to stop Marcoses from reclaiming plundered assets

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. on Tuesday dared the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to stop the Marcoses from reclaiming assets.

This is in the face of suspicion, he said, that a compromise deal has been secretly forged between the Marcoses and the Arroyo government.

Pimentel sought an explanation from the PCGG on the apparent failure of the government's efforts to recover and take over the ownership of a huge portion of the ill-gotten wealth of the late President Ferdinand Marcos and his family.

Pimentel echoed the public outrage over reports that the Marcoses have already regained ownership of some of the assets that were sequestered by the PCGG and are now trying to reclaim more of these assets by presenting documents that supposedly prove that they belong to the late dictator.

Among the assets which have reportedly been returned to the Marcoses are shares of stock or their money equivalent in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company; mansions and rest houses such as in Laoag, Ilocos Norte and another in Canlubang, Laguna; and even bank deposits.

The Marcoses are now openly claiming ownership of huge shareholdings in companies under the Lucio Tan Group such as Fortune Tobacco, Foremost Farms, Asia Brewery and Allied Bank. And lately, they claim that they are the real owners of a block of shares in the GMA-Network Inc. held by former Rizal Congressman Gualberto Duavit, Jr., as well as a big track of prime lands in Barrio Ugong, Pasig City formerly under the name of Jose Campos.

Pimentel said the Senate, through an appropriate committee, should investigate the basis of the claim of the Marcoses that they are the legitimate owners of all these assets and why these were not declared and forfeited in favor of the government despite accusations that they were part of the wealth that Mr. Marcos plundered from the treasury and the national economy during his 20-year rule of the country.

In the case of the block of shares in GMA-7 Network, allegedly entrusted by Marcos to Duavit, Pimentel decried that there had been no effort whatsoever on the part of PCGG to sequester them, much less to investigate their ownership.

"Obviously, these matters will not stop on the pages of newspapers or come out only in television news. Obviously, this will land in the jurisdiction of the proper Senate committee," Pimentel said.

Both Ilocos Norte Congressman Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. and former Congresswoman Imee Marcos said they are in possession of documents that will prove their family's ownership of part of the Lucio Tan business empire and the GMA-7 Network.

"These matters should really be scrutinized carefully by the proper committee of the Senate so that the right of the people over these shares of these entities can be protected," Pimentel said.

The minority leader said the aggressiveness by which the Marcoses are claiming ownership of billions of pesos worth of assets, many of which were previously sequestered by the government, merely lends credence to speculation about a secret compromise deal that may have been struck between the Marcoses and the Arroyo government.

Pimentel said the ineptness of the PCGG in building up evidence about the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses is a compelling reason for the agency's abolition.

"If they cannot yet figure out who own these assets after 20 years, even if we give them forever, they will still not be able to find out who really own them. In the meantime, there are unscrupulous officials who are making money out of the continued sequestration of these assets," he said.