Bongbong: No quit claim yet on ‘ill-gotten wealth’

If you find it, you can have it.

This is the supposed longstanding “quit claim” proposal of the Marcos family amid the revival of government negotiations on their supposed ill-gotten wealth, former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said during a forum in Quezon City yesterday.

The defeated vice presidential candidate and only son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos said the Marcos family has been offering this quit claim even since the administration of Fidel Ramos but this has not been accepted.

“There is no quit claim. That was our proposal. We are proposing na ganito gawin natin (that we do this). We have not come to an agreement,” he said.

Still, he said the offer stands and there will be no deadline or limitations to the proposal.

“Anything that you find, sa inyo na (it’s yours). That’s standing… Kung sinasabi n’yo na merong tinatago na nakita n’yo na ’di namin nalalaman, kunin n’yo (If you’re saying that there is something hidden you’ve found that we don’t know about, get it),” he said.

Marcos said this offer is consistent with the his family’s position of wanting to “settle the cases” since 1986, the year they were forced out of Malacañang following a four-day mass uprising on EDSA.

Marcos said this was what his sister, Ilocos Gov. Imee Marcos, expressed to President Duterte to settle the threedecade issue on their supposed ill-gotten wealth.

“We are always willing to settle, talk about what needs to be done to settle this issue,” he added.

Marcos said that while he is not privy to talks, there have been preliminary discussions among their lawyers, but nothing substantial on the process or who will be involved has been decided yet.

He further mentioned he does not know what the “gold bars” to be returned are and that the public should just ask the President himself.

The younger Marcos also claimed he does not need immunity from suit as he does not carry his father’s sins and he did not commit any crime.

“What we are saying (is that) we are settling the case,” he said, adding that settlement has always been stalled by those with partisan interests so that the country will be divided between political parties.

“They don’t want to unite the Philippines. They are not working for the national interest or the good of the country,” Marcos said.

As of late, the Presidential Commission on Good Government has recovered over P170 billion worth of assets of the Marcoses and their cronies.