On the hunt for Marcos' wealth -- again

On the hunt for Marcos' wealth -- again

MANILA: Haydee Yorac's appointment as the new chair of the Presidential Commission for Good Government comes as a jolt. It shocks us to be reminded that the PCCG is still around after 15 years of looking for the bulk of the late President Marcos' ill- gotten wealth, with little to show for the effort.

The search has become like a tiger chasing its tail and ending up biting it.

We have lost count of how many chairs the PCGG has had since it was created. The records show, however, that the PCGG has had nine chairs since February 1986 when Jovito Salonga assumed the post.

The appointment of Yorac came amid fresh moves to have the PCGG abolished. Sen. Sergio Osmeqa III is filing a bill seeking its abolition. "Fifteen years after its creation, the PCGG has produced little by way of accomplishments and actual results to justify its continued existence," Osmeqa said in his bill.

He wants to transfer its functions to the Department of Justice -- a transfer that does not ensure the recovery of more Marcos wealth.

The latest episode in the search of the Marcos wealth was the confirmation early this month by German and Philippine officials that Irene Marcos-Araneta attempted to transfer several billions in US dollars to a Deutsche Bank branch in Dusseldorf, Germany, from the Union Bank of Switzerland.

The Swiss bank is alleged to hold the Marcos family's laundered money. The Marcoses' laundered assets are now estimated to reach US$13 billion. If this figure is accurate, then we have an idea of how little has been recovered from the Swiss banks which have so far handed over less than $1 billion worth of Marcos assets to the Philippine government.

Yorac has a reputation for integrity and tenacity. These are assets that served her well when she was a commissioner in the Commission on Elections. She will probably need more than these qualities to uncover more laundered Marcos wealth, let alone recover them. She needs more than investigative zeal to penetrate the mist that has wrapped the Marcos assets. The task that faces her is as difficult as that of archaeologists deciphering the secrets of the pharaohs entombed in pyramids.

Two new commissioners have been appointed to beef up Yorac's team: Ruben Carranza Jr. and Victoria Avena. Both are lawyers. They have given themselves a two-year deadline "to settle the Marcos issue." We have no idea what the parameters are of the "Marcos issue." Neither do we have a clue as to how much they are targeting to recover.

The Marcos wealth is so complex, the laundering so convoluted that a lawyer's training could come in handy for them to do a good job. But more than that, the commissioners must also be good detectives as well. While we wish Yorac success, following the disappointments of the last 15 years, the new commissioners might need more than two years to produce results. The next few months will see them just getting acquainted with their job.

Even before the PCGG could put its hands on the bulk of the Marcos laundered wealth, with the help of a mass of evidence it has accumulated over the years, the government is confronted with another plunder case.

This is, of course, the case filed by the Ombudsman against deposed President Joseph Estrada. The Estrada plunder case casts a shadow over the Marcos wealth quest, tending to make us forget the Marcos hidden assets. Yorac's intervention could have the effect of keeping alive interest in the search for the Marcos hidden wealth.

It is too early to say if Yorac's appointment will give a fresh new momentum to the efforts to recover much of the Marcos wealth. Ahead of her lies the tangled path of negotiations with the Marcos family over how much of discovered wealth goes to the government and how much to the Marcoses. This has been a sensitive issue with political implications.

Obviously, the all-or-nothing approach would end up with the government gaining nothing. The question of sharing, which involves policy decisions from the Macapagal administration, will have to be addressed as one of the parameters of the PCGG's new leadership.

-- Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network