Philippines to sell Marcos properties
A photo taken on January 10, 1986 shows then-Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos at a news conference in Manila. (AFP/File)
The Philippines on Tuesday said it has approved the sale of stolen properties worth some 65.8 million pesos (US$1.5 million) seized from the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies.
The seven properties, seized in 2012, consist of land in the resort towns of Tagaytay, south of Manila, as well as in Puerto Galera and Calapan that were under the ownership of Marcos ally Jolly Bugarin, then the head of the National Bureau of Investigation, a statement said.
Other properties that are up for sale include parcels of land under the name of Roberto Benedicto, a known crony and associate of Marcos whom he appointed as envoy to Japan in the 1970.
A public auction to dispose of the properties is to be held in March, said Richard Amurao, head of the agency tasked to go after all Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth.
“We will continue to work even harder in carrying out one of our major tasks, which is to privatize surrendered and recovered ill-gotten assets of the Marcoses and his cronies with proceeds going to its true owners, the Filipino people.,” Amurao said.
Marcos ruled the Philippines with an iron hand for nearly 20 years, during which they are accused of plundering the government of an estimated 10 billion dollars in wealth.
Thousands of activists were jailed, went missing or killed, before a popular revolt in 1986 forced him and his family into Hawaiian exile, where he died three years later.
His flamboyant widow, Imelda Marcos, and children however were later allowed to return and they have since regained political clout. The eldest son and namesake is a senator, who is set to run for vice president in the May polls, while the matriarch sits as a legislator in Congress.
The agency said it was also preparing to auction of a massive jewelry collection seized from Imelda Marcos that contained a 25-carat pink diamond.
Katrina Camille Pena of the Presidential Commission on Good Government holds a very rare Briolette or barrel-shaped pink diamond from India’s Golconda region during appraisal by Sotheby’s of the so-called Hawaii Collection, one of three sets of the Marcos Jewelry Collection, at the Central Bank of the Philippines Friday, Nov. 27, 2015 in Manila, Philippines. The Hawaii Collection was seized by the US Bureau of Customs upon the Marcos’ arrival in Hawaii in 1986 and is now under the custody of the Philippine Commission on Good Government or PCGG. The appraisal was made to determine its current value which was put at $5 to $7 million dollars in 1988 and 1991.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) .
