Marcos escrow account now totals $676-M

It was in 1992 that the Presidential Commission on Good Government and the Office of the Solicitor General established the where-abouts of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos‚s accounts in Swiss banks. This was not an easy task. Remember that Marcos was living in exile abroad and he could have moved the funds. To comply with sequestration laws under the International Mutual Assistance Cooperation on Criminal Matters, the Swiss tribunal asked that a case be filed in Philippine courts to prove that the Marcos Swiss accounts were ill-gotten. This was done and the accounts remained frozen till the Philippine court made its final decision.

The Solicitor General then was Raul I. Goco. And it was he that initiated the move to have the Marcos Swiss accounts transferred to the Philippines even before the issue on whether the accounts were legal or not was already decided. To do that, Marcos’s consent was needed. There were other complications. A Human Rights group claimed part of the ownership of the funds basing their claim on a Hawaii court decision involving punitive and compensatory damages; a London court handed the Refal judgment concerning some promissory notes drawn by Marcos which were dishonored and $900 million was handed down because of Marcos’s default. There was also the Golden Buddha claim and its corresponding fees. It became a vital necessity to secure the immediate release of the Marcos Swiss accounts to keep the Swiss courts from resolving these claims.

It was Solicitor General Goco who proposed to the Swiss courts that the Marcos Swiss accounts be released and held in escrow by a recognized Philippine bank even while the case was still unsettled by the Sandiganbayan. That, of course, would entail a modification of the Swiss tribunal judgment on the sequestration, and so they were reluctant. But Goco very diplomatically pressed the matter and finally got the Swiss authorities to agree.

It took a lot of hard work and patience but Goco worked overtime on the matter. At that time, District Attorney Peter Cosandey of Zurich carried a special designation on the Marcos case. While attending a seminar on money laundering, Goco followed him in London and there they found the very suitable environment to discuss his release proposal in the company of Assistant Solicitor General Cesario del Rosario and Embassy Protocol Officer Conrad Paule. Peter Cosandey asked Goco to formally present his petition for the early release of the Marcos accounts. Goco did so and in his petition, he convinced the Swiss authorities that once the Marcos Swiss accounts were in a reputable Philippine bank, the rule of law would prevail. It took some time for the Swiss authorities to decide. Their main constraint is that it would establish a precedent. However in August 1996, the Swiss tribunal issued a ruling that allowed the remittance of the Marcos Swiss accounts to be held in escrow pending the final decision of the Sandiganbayan. In short, it was a four-year battle.

When the first efforts to recover the Marcos Swiss accounts were initiated, the amount was only $398 million. Now, it has risen to $676 million! But the best part is that the money is already here – where it really belongs.

There is a bank secrecy law. And this is often invoked even on accounts that have been illegally acquired. The release of the Marcos Swiss accounts even while the case is still pending before the Sandiganbayan caused quite a stir in the banking community in Switzerland. Today, many governments in quest for hidden accounts in Switzerland are trying to discover just what strategy the Philippines adopted. They should consult Raul I. Goco.