Marcos Swiss cash deposits & Jacobi’s latest initiative - FROM A DISTANCE by Carmen N. Pedrosa

The government has a duty to pursue the Marcos deposits regardless of Mr. Jacobi’s efforts.The trouble with the government’s reaction to the latest initiative of Rainer Jacobi is precisely that. Its latest effort is not because it believes it has the duty to pursue Marcos cash deposits in Swiss banks on behalf of the Filipino people but because it has to react to the latest initiative of the intrepid Australian operative who has yet again managed a cloak-and-dagger operation on his own.

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Headlines will not get us the money back. We will never get at the bottom of the Marcos gold and cash deposits this way even if this is headlined by a Manila daily everyday. If the Philippine government is serious about recovering the Marcos loot in Switzerland it must do more than merely react to Reiner Jacobi’s initiatives.

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Jacobi has kept issue in public mind. The government must plan for a sustained and wide-ranging strategy to recover the Marcos horde in Switzerland with or without the help of Mr. Jacobi. The way it has been, the policy for recovery of the Marcos loot in Switzerland seems to depend on Mr. Jacobi’s initiatives. This is not to disparage the work of Mr. Jacobi. It has its value. Certainly, his efforts have kept the issue alive in the public mind. If the Philippine government only had even half of the determination and the ingenuity with which Jacobi has persevered with his search, we might have moved forward.

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A problem of attitude. I think it is a problem of the government’s attitude. We must either want to get at the Marcos gold and cash deposits in Swiss banks or we don’t. If we do, then some strategic thinking must be done on how best we can do it. If we don’t, then let us just ignore the whole damn thing and give it up for lost.

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The Philippines is not alone. In all this, a fundamental fact is being ignored. And it is that the Philippines is not alone in its plight of having claims to cash and gold deposits in Swiss banks that have now become impossible to get at because of its ironclad banking secrecy laws. Indeed, that is why the Marcos deposits ended up in Swiss banks in the first place. Swiss banks are not shy about advertising their laws on banking secrecy, making them attractive to hot or illegal money. Therefore, it would be naive for the Philippine government or those in charge of recovering the Marcos secret deposits to expect the wholehearted cooperation of Switzerland in our efforts to get back the Marcos deposits. In the real world, we do not have either the political or economic muscle to make such demands. America does. In 1974, it succeeded in forcing the Federal Council to sign a judicial mutual assistance agreement when the Swiss banks opened their records to American investigators.

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The Jewish lobby. A few years ago, there was a determined effort by relatives of Jews running away from Nazism to get at their secret deposits in Switzerland. They were able to secure the help of Americans and if I remember right, Alan Greenspan helped pry some of those secrets. But like most stories on Swiss deposits, the agitation soon died down and we did not hear of it again. I mention this because at about the same time, after Jacobi’s documentary on Marcos gold deposits, which was shown on British Independent Television, some people suggested I ask Philippine authorities to latch on to the Jewish campaign.

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Other uses for our claim on the Marcos moneys. But it is not just to get the moneys back that we should press the Swiss banks. There are other uses for it, one that comes to mind immediately is to use it as leverage. One way is to look at negotiating for better terms for, say, the repayments on the loan for the abandoned nuclear reactor. I think UBS was among the lending banks. I will admit that I do not know at this point just how much we are paying for this loan. But if it is true that there are suspected Marcos moneys on deposit in UBS, there is nothing wrong with negotiating for better terms with these deposits in mind. I admit this is all speculative. But we may be missing on a creative approach to the claims. A bold public relations effort in concert with other claimants of secret Swiss bank deposits has not been thought about or explored.

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We can be part of a worldwide lobby. The first task for a committee assigned by the government that would look into a quasi-official strategy is to get in touch with other countries who have equal claims and see at what stage they are in their efforts. Even in Switzerland itself there is work that could be done. Not all the Swiss favor what their banks stand for. Indeed, I have Swiss friends who are disgusted by the seeming helplessness of their government when it comes to bank policies, especially its draconian secrecy laws.

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We should pursue investigation by the Swiss Parliament. If there is anything that the latest Jacobi initiative has done, he has kept the issue alive in the public mind. The most important development, if the reports are true, is that the PCGG is to seek the help of the Swiss Parliament. This is the right direction and I daresay a welcome departure from previous policy of working with and relying solely on Swiss judicial authorities. The problem is first and foremost a public relations effort. We must get to the Swiss people themselves and certainly the Swiss Parliament is the logical place to begin. One of the staunchest critics of Swiss banking secrecy is Jean Ziegler who wrote the best selling Switzerland Exposed. He is a Social Democrat and well-known internationally. At the time I was actively in touch with some Swiss journalists on the Marcos cash and gold deposits, I was able to talk to him briefly over the phone. We wanted to invite him to the Philippines so he could educate us on Swiss banking and perhaps with more knowledge of the political workings of the Swiss government we would be better equipped to pursue the Marcos moneys. This was back in 1994, when my husband was ambassador to Belgium, the European Union and Luxembourg.

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We need a crusade. Finally, there was a time when sting operations or direct negotiations with the Swiss authorities would have been effective. That was immediately after 1986. But that moment has passed. It is different today. We need to re-examine the efforts we have made so far and why we failed, then move on to a strategy and tactics more suitable to the present time if we still want the Marcos deposits returned to the Philippines. I think there is more we can do than merely rely on Reiner Jacobi, bless his soul, for his initiatives.to recover the Marcos Swiss deposits. What we need today is a crusade to which every Filipino can put his name.

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