Duterte: Marcos kin offer to return gold and assets

Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said the heirs of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos had offered to return to the government some of the family’s disputed wealth, including “a few gold bars”.

Marcos and his wife Imelda were accused of plundering about US$10bil (RM42.6bil) from state coffers in 20 years in power.

A bloodless “People Power” uprising in 1986 chased the family into US exile.

The government announced last month that Duterte, a Marcos ally, may abolish a government agency that has recovered some 170 billion pesos (RM14bil) from Marcos and his family.

But Duterte yesterday said in a speech to government officials: “They (the Marcos family) told me they’ll open everything, and probably return what is uncovered.”

He did not name the Marcos family member who had approached him, the total being offered or the terms attached to it.

The family member had told Duterte “we are ready to open and bring (it) back ... including a few gold bars”, according to the Philippine president, but the amount involved was “not Fort Knox”. Fort Knox is a vault that stores US gold reserves.

Duterte said he would accept the Marcos offer and was looking to appoint a retired justice of the Philippine Supreme Court to negotiate with the family on the government’s behalf.

Duterte’s announcement was the latest development in the remarkable political rehabilitation of the Marcos clan.

Despite the dictator’s death in Hawaii exile in 1989, his family has been making a political comeback in the Philippines with his widow, Imelda, and their children getting elected to office.

No member of the Marcos family went to prison despite the government recovery of some of its fortune through litigation and out-ofcourt settlements.