PCGG to DOT: Exhibit Imelda Marcos gems in museum
By Gil C. Cabacungan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:55 am | Wednesday, September 5th, 2012
The glitter of gold and the sparkle
of diamonds from Imelda Marcos’
jewelry collection may yet attract
more tourists than her shoes, said
the agency tasked with recovering
the ill-gotten wealth of her family.
The Presidential Commission on
Good Government (PCGG) is urging
the Department of Tourism to
exhibit the former first lady’s
jewelry collection at the
Metropolitan Museum in Manila
before these are sold.
“First, we should put these on exhibit because we think these
can attract tourists and second, we should auction these jewelry off. Sotheby’s alreadycalled us and expressed interest in auctioning these off,”
PCGG Chairman Andres Bautista said in a phone interview.
Bautista said that previous estimates pegged the Imelda
jewelry collection at between $10 million and $20 million.
“We think, notoriety has a premium. It should be more than
that,” he said.
Divided in 3 caches
Imelda’s jewels that the government have seized are divided
into three caches.
The Malacañang collection which has roughly 300 pieces that
were left behind in Imelda’s closets when the Marcoses
hurriedly left in 1986.
The Honolulu collection containing at least 400 pieces that
were sized by the United States Bureau of Customs from the
Marcoses when they fled to Hawaii.
The collection named after Imelda’s Greek accomplice,
Demetriou Roumeliotes, who was caught by Philippine
authorities trying to spirit 60 pieces of jewelry out of the
country a few weeks after the Marcoses left the country.
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ano Colt45 mag nanakaw Idol mo may lahi kasing Pirata
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PART II MARCOS GEMS
37-carat diamond
“All of these are in the vault of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
and they are under the jurisdiction of the PCGG and the
Department of Finance. The Roumeliotes collection is the most
expensive because it has very big pieces,” Bautista said. Its
most prominent piece is a 37-carat diamond
Bautista said the PCGG had submitted its recommendation to
Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez as early as March to put
the Imelda jewels on public display. Jimenez did not reply to
the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s query.
Bautista is looking at the exhibition and sale of the jewelry
collection as part of the PCGG’s swan song in preparation for
the agency’s imminent phase-out.
“We estimate that we are still running after between P150
billion and P200 billion. Our suggestion to the President is to
shut us down because we have been losing some of the
evidence (versus the Marcoses) and we have the Ombudsman
to do our job. The PCGG can help the Ombudsman because
EO (Executive Order) 1 mandates us to look into cases of
possible graft and corruption,” he said.
Previous attempts
In 2006, the Sotheby’s and Christie’s international auction
houses estimated the entire lot (the three collections) to be
worth P15 billion.The government tried several times to sell the jewelry to raise money, but court cases and disputes over the venue prevented the auction.
In 1994, the PCGG tried to sell the jewelry but was unable to
work out the terms with international auctioneers, Christie’s of
New York and Sotheby’s of London. Another attempt was
made in 1996, but it did not materialize
In 2005, another attempt was made, but Imelda asked a
Manila court to issue an injunction against the auction,
claiming the jewelry belonged to her, with some pieces being
family heirlooms.
In May 2009, the PCGG announced once again its plan to
auction off a huge cache of Imelda’s jewelry, with then PCGG
Commissioner Ricardo Abcede noting that there was no legal
impediment because Imelda had been unsuccessful in getting
the courts to issue a restraining order.
'Embarrassing’
Bautista, who took over the PCGG in October in 2010, blamed
some of his predecessors for the PCGG’s failures in going
after the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their cronies
over the past 26 years.
“It is embarrassing what they (our predecessors) did before.
That is why we strived hard to erase this and regain our
reputation. We can only change what we have at present,”
Bautista said.
He said the Office of the Ombudsman could go after fixers in
the PCGG. “We have filed cases against them at the
Ombudsman and some of them are pending in the
Sandiganbayan,” he said.
Gridlock
Bautista also blamed the gridlock in the court cases against
the Marcoses for the PCGG’s disappointing performance.
“Most of the cases are being dragged to death in court. The
failure of the PCGG in the past is mirrored by the failure of the
courts. Our cases are over 20 years old—over 260 of them.
The courts should not have been allowed to indefinitely delay
these cases. Hopefully, with the new Ombudsman, the new
Chief Justice and the secretary of justice, we will have a
better output with our cases,” he said.
The PCGG has remitted P293 million in 2011 and P440 million
so far this year. “This is our recovery rate. We give back more
than we spend,” Bautista said.
Under the law, proceeds from the recovery of the Marcoses’ ill-
gotten assets go to the land reform program.
Compensation for victims
Bautista said the PCGG was not against paying compensation
to the Marcos human rights victims who won $2 billion in
damages in a Honolulu court in 1995.
“What we don’t want is to compensate them through their
lawyers because the lawyers are getting a big chunk. Our
suggestion is give the money to the Treasury, create a law
compensating the victims, and the Treasury will give the
compensation directly to the victims. The right process should
be followed,” Bautista said.
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