Hunt for Marcos haul halted by Duterte
PHILIPPINES: President Rodrigo Duterte is to disband the investigation team created three decades ago to track down a fortune in cash, jewellery and precious paintings believed to have been stolen by Ferdinand Marcos, the former dictator of the Philippines, and his wife, Imelda.
The decision is seen by critics as a sign of the resurgent power of one of Asia’s most notorious families.
The Presidential Commission on Good Government was tasked with finding an estimated US$10 billion (NZ$13.4b) of loot spirited away by the Marcos family before they were forced out of power.
‘‘They don’t do anything,’’ Benjamin Diokno, Duterte’s budget secretary, said of the commission’s investigators. ‘‘What do they do?’’
The government intends to merge the functions of the commission with those of the office of the solicitor-general. ‘‘There’s no politics there,’’ Ernesto Abella, Duterte’s spokesman, said. ‘‘I think it’s a question of streamlining.’’
The commission argues that the national assets it has recovered, valued at about $3.4b, far exceed its budget, and sceptics see the decision to end the search as another step towards the political rehabilitation of the Marcos family, which makes no secret of its ambitions to return to high office.
The presidential couple fled to Hawaii in 1986 after a public outcry over allegations of corruption, extravagance and brutality led to a snap election.
‘‘This is a huge blow to human rights groups, especially those who have been against the Marcos dictatorship,’’ Jean Enriquez, spokeswoman of Idefend, a coalition of non-governmental organisations, said.
‘‘This administration seeks to absolve the Marcoses from their responsibility to the Filipino people.’’
Duterte is politically close to the Marcos family: his father was a member of the dictator’s cabinet and last year he allowed Marcos’s body to be reburied in the Heroes’ Cemetery in Manila.
The late dictator’s son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, known as Bongbong, was narrowly defeated in the election for the vicepresidency, and Duterte has spoken of his hope that he will replace the incumbent, Leni Robredo, an outspoken rival.
The commission says it has recovered more than 150 paintings, including works by Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Picasso.
– The Times