Social media is undeniably one of the biggest cancers to plague the modern world. But even outside the modern world in isolated backwaters like the Philippines Twitter remains a formidable threat to the collective intelligence of the nation. Just look at this tweet from someone who is 100% behind Bongbong Marcos so much so that she has lost the ability to think.
This is not the stupidest tweet she has tweeted out of her tweeter but it is representative.
Has the PCGG ever produced an accounting of all sequestered and forfeited assets, proceeds from the sale of these assets, and what happened to the proceeds?
And then the response from way out of left field from some clown who apparently lives in Macau and has a troll name.
None that we've known of.
Everything about the answer and the question is wrong. Did the man forget that aside from civil cases Imelda Marcos is a bonafide convicted felon? The question is bait to get those who read it to think that the PCGG has never released such a list because no-ill gotten wealth was recovered. That is literally what this lady told me!
Not proven in court, sorry. And no evidence to prove.
What a load of bunk. The Supreme Court says otherwise.
On July 15, 2003, The Supreme Court of the Philippines reaffirmed the Sandiganbayan’s initial decision, concluding over 25 Billion Pesos worth of Marcos Assets as ill-gotten wealth. In its decision, it reiterated a number of key facts:
1.Throughout the proceedings of the trial, Imelda and her children had in fact admitted to the existence of said deposits and their ownership thereto. In one instance, Imelda and her children denied clandestinely stashing the country’s wealth in Switzerland, stating that such assets had been legally acquired.
2. The five foundations imputed into the case were established precisely to hide the money stolen by the Marcos spouses. Imelda did not deny the existence and authenticity of her own signatures on several files proving her ownership over said funds and said foundations. These included documents under the names of “Jane Ryan” and “William Saunders” – which actually referred to herself and her husband Ferdinand, respectively. She had even admitted in 1998 before the Sandiganbayan that she was the sole beneficiary of 90% of the subject matter in controversy with the remaining 10% belonging to the estate of Ferdinand Marcos.
3. The assets acquired by the Marcoses and kept in these deposits are manifestly disproportionate to their salaries as government officials. The only known lawful income of the Marcos Couple from 1966 to 1985 was determined in the sum of US$304,372.43 – the equivalent of P2,319,583.33 at the time. It is keen to note that neither Ferdinand nor Imelda filed any Statement of Assets and Liabilities (SAL) as required by law, from which their net worth could be determined.
4. As public officials, neither Ferdinand nor his wife Imelda were even allowed to engage in the management of foundations. This was held by law under both the 1935 Constitution and the 1973 Constitution which was created under his administration.
This tweeter is pretty stupid. The proper way to resolve this question is to send an FOI request to the PCGG not shout out loud in Twitter for socmed points. Thankfully someone did this already and only a few weeks ago on May 16, 2022.
Response to Request
Your FOI request is approved. I enclose a copy of the following
1. Recovered and Litigated Assets
2. PENDING PCGG RECOVERY and Other Related CIVIL CASES
3. WON & ADVERSE JUDGMENTS PCGG RECOVERY of Ill-Gotten Wealth Cases
Here is a list of recovered Marcos ill-gotten wealth and the status of their disposition.
I can just hear this twitter person tweeting, "THIS IS NOT ENOUGH!!" And you know, I get it. This is not a detailed breakdown of every asset recovered and its disposition. But this is what we have to work with. So, there are several bank accounts and stock portfolios which have been remitted to the treasury. It appears that 5 of 11 recovered properties have been sold. 15 of the paintings have been fully remitted to the Bureau of Treasury while it's not clear where the other 693 are. In 2018 3 paintings recovered by the United States were sold at auction. It appears this happened without the knowledge of the PCGG.
“The OSG had no prior knowledge of the sale and the details thereof or the supposed court order. While counsel for petitioner has requested the PCGG for details, the documentation is still forthcoming,” the OSG said.
The OSG “profusely apologized” to the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan—the lawful custodian of the paintings—and vowed “to provide further information as they become available.”
It is unclear whether or not the proceeds were remitted to the Philippine government but because these paintings are from the USA and thus foreign assets it would seem that the money has been fully remitted to the Bureau of the Treasury per the graph above. There were also painting auctions in 1987, 1991, and 1999. In 2019 the Marcos family was ordered to forfeit 160 paintings.
“In sum, petitioner Republic was able to establish the prima facie presumption that the paintings and artworks valued at $24,325,500 acquired by the respondent spouses were significantly out of proportion to their aggregate salaries of $304,372.43 as public officials,” the ruling, penned by Associate Justice Efren de la Cruz read.
“Aside from the unsubstantiated ‘lack of sufficient knowledge’ in their Answer, respondents failed to present evidence to overturn the presumption that the paintings and artworks were unlawfully acquired. Hence, the forfeiture of said properties in favor of petitioner Republic is warranted,” it added.
The jewelry is being appraised so it can be sold at auction. Duterte approved this back in 2019.
President Rodrigo Duterte has “officially” ordered the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to auction the jewelry collection of former first lady and now Ilocos Norte 2nd District Representative Imelda Marcos.
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, in a message to reporters, confirmed that the Office of the President (OP) has officially informed the PCGG about the formal order to auction the PHP700-million jewelry collection.
The PCGG first asked permission to auction the jewelry collection in November last year.
"OP has officially informed PCGG that it interposes no objections to the proposed activities relative to the disposal of the Marcos Jewelry Collections, subject to compliance with existing laws, rules and regulations,” Medialdea said.
Strangely enough Imelda Marcos' shoes are on display in a museum.
The museum's main feature is a portion of criminal convict and former First Lady Imelda Marcos's shoe collection (749 pairs as of 2020).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marikina_Shoe_Museum
Now, of course, there is more to this story. The majority of funding of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARP) comes directly from recovered ill-gotten Marcos wealth. The PCGG's latest report has more info on this.
The PCGG has provided substantial funding for the CARP, one of the social justice measures of the 1987 Constitution.
Under Section 63(b) of Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, among the sources of funds for CARP are receipts from assets recovered and from sales of ill-gotten wealth recovered through the PCGG. Pursuant thereof, the PCGG has remitted the net proceeds of the disposed surrendered assets, to the BTr for the account of CARP from 1987 to December 2020, the total amount of Seventy-Eight Billion, Nine Hundred Thirty-Four Million, Five Hundred Forty-Nine Thousand, Ninety-Three Pesos and 15/100 (P78,934,549,093.15).
These remittances were used to implement various CARP related projects, such as: construction of farm to market roads, bridges, irrigation facilities, acquisition of post harvest facilities, rural electrification, potable water supply, school buildings, extension and training services, credit assistance, scholarships grants, creation of Agrarian Reform Communities nationwide, and farmer organizations, and other related agricultural projects.
In addition, the PCGG has recovered and transferred to DAR 1,650 hectares of agricultural lands which were later distributed to farmer beneficiaries of Cavite and Laguna. While another vast tract of land in Biliran Province consisting of 1,407 hectares was transferred to the provincial government and distributed to legitimate farmer beneficiaries of the province.
This same report has a whole section on the disposition of the recovered assets noting that several items went up for sale.
Published disposable properties for 2019 as approved by PrC.
Conducted Marketing and Sales Activities for 16 real properties with approximate value P59M for 2019.
Assisted the Privatizations Division in Marketing to reach the potential buyers of the PCGG Properties.
Posted Notices of Sale for disposable properties in different government offices bulletin boards.
There is also a section where the PCGG documents show they monitor and preserve the properties which remain in their possession.
There have also been several property auctions.
In March 2022 the BIR announced they will be auctioning off 11 more properties formerly owned by the Marcos family.
This was disclosed by retired Tacloban City Revenue Regional Director Estrella V. Martinez whose information was later confirmed by revenue officials on condition that they should not be named.
Martinez said that when she was still with the BIR, she tried then to sell the properties in 1997 but disclosed that no one showed interest in buying any of them. The same happened to the other sequestered assets from the Marcos family located in Quezon City, San Juan and elsewhere.
There were also property auctions in 1993 and 2012. In 2013 there was another property auction announced which also featured stock portfolios and media firms once owned by the Marcos family.
The exercise, which will be held over two years, will auction off 16 properties, 28 share portfolios — seven of them in oil companies — and 400 pieces of jewellery owned by former first lady Imelda Marcos, now a congresswoman.
The PCGG is also offering a total of P4 billion (Dh355.3 million) for two media entities: P3 billion (Dh267 million) for the sale of assets and the franchise of the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp (formerly Channel 13); and P1 billion (Dh88.8 million) for DWAN Radio.
Also included in the sale are seven shareholdings of business associates that fronted for Marcos in oil companies such as Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp, Benguet Consolidated Inc, Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co, Oriental Petroleum and Mining Corp, Philodrill Corp, Philippine Oil Geothermal Energy Inc and Trans-Asia Oil and Mineral Corporation.
The PCGG is also selling the share portfolios of Marcos business associates in 11 other firms — Chemfields Inc; Imperial Insurance; Marcventures Holdings Inc; Philippine Airlines Holdings Inc; Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co; Phil Overseas Telecommunications Corp; Phil National Construction Corp; Puerto Azul Golf and Country Club; Oceanic Wireless; Radio Phils Network Inc; and Showa United Food Inc.
I would be remiss here if I did not mention the COA's recent accusations against the PCGG for not properly cataloging all recovered assets.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has called out the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) over 122 art pieces and P54.61 million in surrendered or recovered stocks which remain unrecorded in its books.
In its 2021 PCGG Annual Audit released recently, the COA noted “laxity in the monitoring and recovery efforts” in connection with the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family and their alleged cronies.
For instance, 772,594,488 shares of stocks worth P54.614 million, which were surrendered by the defendants or were recovered by the government, remain unrecorded in the PCGG’s books as of Dec. 31, 2021.
The COA said that while the PCGG reasoned out that a majority of the shares of stocks were already inactive, the entire amount should have still been inventoried in its books.
“The non-recording of the surrendered/recovered shares is tantamount to voluntarily giving away possession and control of what is due to the government and without due regard to existing accounting and auditing rules and regulations,” the COA report said.
It pointed out that instead of outright non-recognition of the surrendered and recovered stocks, the PCGG could have requested the inactive ones to be dropped off from its books but only after submitting the “appropriate documents to support its derecognition, pursuant to existing accounting and auditing rules and regulations.”
In the same audit report, the COA also called out the PCGG over 122 pieces of artwork which are not entered in its books as of end-2021.
“One hundred twenty-two pieces of surrendered artworks such as paintings, statues, jars, framed wood carvings, wood carvings, tapestries, lithographs, framed cross-stitch artwork, wine goblet, upright piano, decanter, collage, brass item, abstract, news clipping, framed news print, drawings, plaque, and brass sculpture found at PCGG station remained unrecorded in the books of PCGG, thereby understating agency’s Abandoned/ Surrendered Property/Assets account by its total fair market value which are yet to be determined,” the COA said.
The COA recommended that the PCGG direct its Asset Management Department to “verify the accuracy of the inventory report, cause the appraisal of properties and coordinate with the Chief Accountant for proper accounting/recording in the books.”
Meanwhile, the COA said the PCGG’s laxity in transferring titles over several surrendered or recovered shares of stocks to the government led to the non-collection of dividends since 2005.
First of all one should not be shocked that an office of the Philippine government is plagued with mismanagement. That is par for the course. Second of all this news item only serves to confirm that ill-gotten wealth was recovered. Some of it wasn't documented properly which means there is more recovered than what is listed in the official FOI information above. Hopefully the PCGG can set it's bearings straight and fully document everything recovered from the Marcos family.
There you have it. That is the status and disposition of the recovered Marcos wealth. It might not be as detailed as one would wish but this is the information which is publicly available. To pose questions that seek to undermine the reality that ill-gotten wealth of various kinds from paintings to land to stock portfolios have been recovered from the Marcos family and that this was all done in a court of law does a grave disservice to the nation. The fact is the Marcos family robbed the Philippines blind and enriched themselves. The PCGG has recovered some of the assets acquired by the Marcos family. And now that Bongbong is in the driver's seat recovery of what remains will be hard going if not altogether impossible.
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