Speaker, SELDA on Marcos wealth: Return all

The Marcos family should return everything and not just a part of their unexpalined wealth, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and a group of martial law victims stressed yesterday, a day after President Duterte bared that the family of the late former president Ferdinand E. Marcos is willing to turn over a part of their wealth and a ‘few gold bars’.

"Well, magandang development yan. Pero sana yung wag sana yung kapiraso lang, sana yung buo na. (Well, that's a good development. But, we hope they will return all, and only a portion),” Alvarez told reporters.

Duterte disclosed that there are ongoing back channel talks between the government and the Marcoses to facilitate the turnover of the Marcos wealth.

Danilo Dela Fuente, spokesperson of the Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) likewise stressed that the Marccoses should return every centavo of all their ill-gotten wealth.

“But for us, martial law victims, this does not mean absolution from their crimes of plunder, human rights violations and massive corruption. We see this as a token and deceptive gesture of a family seeking to complete their political rehabilitation,” said Dela Fuente.

Meantime, Malacañang yesterday said that President Duterte’s disclosure of the intention of the Marcos family to return some of their wealth was done in the spirit of transparency.

Reacting to the President’s disclosure, a group of lawmakers calling themselves the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang (CARMMA), said Duterte had become ‘the spokesperson of the former first family.’

"PRRD disclosed the issue of the Marcos wealth in his speech in the spirit of transparency," Abella said in a statement Wednesday morning.

The Chief Executive has the best interests of the Filipinos in mind, which is, how our people would benefit from the recovery of the Marcos wealth," Abella added.