'Poor' Imelda wants her diamonds back

MANILA, Philippines – Imelda Marcos claims she's going broke. And she has the perfect solution: she wants her loot back. The wife of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos is demanding that the Philippine government return P15 billion worth of jewelry – a collection which includes a Persian-style necklace with more than 100 carats of canary and pink diamonds; tiaras previously owned by European royalty; a 93-carat diamond necklace crafted by renowned Italian designer Gionmoria Buccellati. There is no conceivable way Mrs. Marcos could have paid for the jewels on the ostensible salary of her late husband Ferdinand, who was first president and then dictator of the Philippines. Yet she claims the loot is rightfully hers, and wasn't bought using plundered wealth. The jewels consisting of three collections were seized by or turned over to the Philippine government after the downfall of the Marcos regime in 1986. [See sidebar] In her letter to Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) on May 25, 2009, Mrs. Marcos insisted that she remains the items’ legitimate owner since the agency has yet to initiate any civil or criminal proceedings in any court for their forfeiture. Mrs. Marcos noted that the PCGG never issued any sequestration or freeze order over the jewels, as mandated by Article 18 of the 1987 Constitution. The Justice Department, however, rejected Mrs. Marcos’ request, saying that the Malacañang collection is part of forfeiture proceedings pending before the Sandiganbayan, the country’s anti-graft court. Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said there is no way that the PCGG can release the jewelry due to the pending forfeiture case. Marcos wealth Imelda's attempt to reclaim the jewels is only the latest episode in a two-decade battle between the Marcoses and the government over the wealth of the late dictator’s family. Shortly after she was swept to power in the 1986 EDSA revolt, former President Corazon Aquino formed the PCGG to assert the government's claims. Aside from the contested jewels, the Marcos wealth purportedly includes millions of dollars stashed away in Swiss bank accounts, several private estates, and the secret ownership of shares in private corporations of Marcos cronies. More than two decades have passed since the Marcos regime was overthrown by the People Power uprising, but the family has always insisted that their wealth was not ill-gotten. Mrs. Marcos argues that her husband was already rich even before they got married, fending off claims that she, her husband, and their friends pilfered the Philippine government’s treasury. Mrs. Marcos alone is facing 10 graft charges on allegations that she held financial interests in secret foundations and private enterprises while she was a member of the Interim Batasan Pambansa from 1978 to 1984. To date, neither Imelda nor any of the accused of ill-gotten wealth during the Marcos regime have spent a minute in jail. But the government has had moderate success in recovering the Marcos wealth in a range of corporations and properties. Mockery of justice Critics of the Marcos administration have vowed to block the possible return of the confiscated jewelry to the former First Lady. Etta Rosales of the militant group Akbayan said returning the jewels would be a disservice to Filipinos, especially the victims of human rights abuses, torture, and enforced disappearance during martial law from 1972 to 1981. Rosales had filed the Marcos Compensation bill when she sat as Akbayan party-list representative during the 11th Congress. The bill, which sought to give about P10 billion to martial law victims, was passed by the House and Senate bicameral committee during the 13th Congress. The Senate ratified the bicameral report but the lower house failed to pass the proposed legislation before the closing of the 13th Congress. Under the bill, the money would have been sourced from the $683 million (roughly P34 billion) in Marcos Swiss accounts that Switzerland transferred to the Philippines in 2003. Another Marcos critic, former Solicitor General Frank Chavez, branded the retrieval of the jewelry as a “mockery of justice." Chavez served as a witness in the Marcoses' ill-gotten wealth cases, and subsequently sought several court actions when he became solicitor general. Pleading poverty Ironically, the woman included in Newsweek’s list of greediest people of all time claimed she is on the verge of becoming poor. "It is painful that every time I have to leave for medical treatment, I have to pay P750,000 travel bond. I have no more money left," a weeping Mrs. Marcos said in recent media interviews. The list lumped Mrs. Marcos with Marcus Licinius Crassus, Genghis Khan, Pope Sixtus IV, William Vanderbilt, William Tweed, Empress Dowager Cixi, Charles Ponzi, Ivan Boesky, Dennis Kozlowski, and Bernard Madoff. "[Imelda Marcos] saw it as her duty to provide ‘some kind of light, a star’ for the impoverished Filipino people over whom her husband presided. She took $5 million shopping sprees to New York and Rome, reportedly owned the world’s largest collection of gems and 3,000 pairs of shoes," the Newsweek article wrote of Mrs. Marcos whose name became synonymous to greed and extravagance. - GMANews.TV