Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte approved the sale of P700-million worth of jewelry from the alleged ill-gotten wealth of late President Ferdinand Marcos, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo announced on Thursday, May 30.
“He wants the people to benefit from the proceeds of the sale of the jewelry. So I asked him, ‘Are you going to give your go signal to sell?’ ‘Yes. The sale, the proceeds must reach the people,’” Panelo said, quoting the president.
Panelo disclosed with the media a request brought by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to sell one of the three Marcos jewelry collections.
The spokesperson said that the president granted the request provided that Filipino citizens would benefit from the proceeds.
Panelo said that there is no definite date yet on when Duterte would issue the order noting that the decision “depends on him.”
The spokesperson and presidential legal counsel maintained that the president “agrees with it.”
The PCGG sent a letter dated Sept 7, 2018 requesting the sale of the “Hawaii Collection,” one of the three jewelry troves of Marcos’ widow, Imelda. The collection is currently kept at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and is estimated to be worth P704.8 million.
“We are respectfully requesting for approval from your offices to proceed with all activities preparatory to disposition, including allowing the above-mentioned auctioneers access to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) vaults to perform appraisal,” the letter read.
The two other troves were the “Malacañang Collection” abandoned at the presidential palace and the “Roumeliotes Collection,” smuggled by Marcos crony Demetriou Roumeliotes during the ouster of the former dictator.
It is also planning to auction off the Marcoses’ real estate properties worth P336 million and stocks worth P40.35 million. The total value of the alleged ill-gotten wealth included in the planned auctions is P1.081 billion.
Liberal Party President Senator Francis Pangilinan said that the sale of the Hawaii collection would prove that the Marcoses indeed accumulated billions while their patriarch was in the country’s top post.
“The sale of the P700-million Marcos jewels is proof of plunder during the Marcos dictatorship. The jewels form a teeny-weeny portion of the estimated $10 billion (about P520 billion) Marcos illegal wealth paid for by the blood, sweat, and tears of all Filipinos,” Pangilinan said.
