Manila court rejects Marcos claims

Manila court rejects Marcos claims

PHILIPPINES: The Philippine Supreme Court said on Tuesday nearly US$700 million once held by late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in Swiss banks must be given to the government, but the ruling is unlikely to end a long-running legal battle.

The money now lies in an escrow account at the Philippine National Bank (PNB) pending a decision on the rightful owners -- a matter complicated by a global freeze order on Marcos assets imposed by a judge in the U.S. state of Hawaii in September.

In 1986, Marcos and his wife Imelda fled a popular uprising in the Philippines for Hawaii, where he died three years later.

Government officials say the money held at the PNB is only a fraction of $5 billion to $10 billion plundered by the Marcoses during two decades of iron-fisted rule.

The Supreme Court denied the Marcos family's claims on the money in the escrow account and criticized the Hawaiian court for overstepping its jurisdiction after the Philippine justices had awarded the disputed money to the Manila government in July. -- Reuters