‘Marcoses must return all ill-gotten wealth’

An ally of President Duterte is calling on the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to intensify efforts to recover all the unexplained wealth of the Marcoses following their supposed willingness to return a “few gold bars” in the family’s possession.

Siquijor Rep. Rav Rocamora, a member of PDP-Laban, said the PCGG should take advantage of the offer to run after the purported ill-gotten wealth.

“This should be a cue for the PCGG to double its efforts in hunting down the Marcoses stolen wealth. This settles any and all question as to whether the PCGG is worth the money we spend for its operations,” he said.

“Clearly, it still has a mission and a mandate it must fulfill and the only time it must cease its operations is when all stolen wealth has been recovered,” he pointed out.

As of 2016, the PCGG had recovered a total of P170 billion in ill-gotten wealth — from Swiss bank deposits, shares of stock and real estate to paintings and jewelry — from the Marcoses and their cronies.

Rocamora agreed with Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez that the Marcoses should return all their questionable assets to the government.

“First and foremost, the Marcoses must return any and all stolen property still in their possession. Second, a person who returns property that does not belong to him and gives it back to its rightful owner is assumed to have taken it. So this act must be interpreted as their acceptance of guilt in stealing from government,” Rocamora said.