A government agency is selling ill-gotten assets amassed by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and believed to be worth 18.2 billion Philippine pesos (Dh1.61 billion).
The exercise, which will be held over two years, will auction off 16 properties, 28 share portfolios — seven of them in oil companies — and 400 pieces of jewellery owned by former first lady Imelda Marcos, now a congresswoman.
The assets were sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Governance (PCGG) after they were turned over by business associates of the dictator after he and his family fled the country following a people-backed military mutiny in 1986.
“They are being auctioned now that the PCGG has received rulings from the Supreme Court that they are public properties or ill-gotten wealth of the former president. The government’s Privatisation Council has also given its approval to sell the assets. For a long time, the PCGG has been embroiled with other claimants of these assets, causing a delay in their sale,” a PCGG insider told Gulf News.
“We want to make these assets serve the people. The sale will help combat rural poverty,” PCGG chairman Andres Bautista said.
He referred to a law passed by Congress, which mandates that the proceeds from the sale be used to fund the government’s agrarian reform programme.
Tempting real estate offer
Right now, the PCGG is alerting developers as to the sale of a 188,891 square metre prime property at Ortigas business district, worth P13.8 billion (Dh1.23 billion).
Popularly called ‘Payanig sa Pasig’, it was developed for commercial use by a private group led by Ilocos Sur Governor Luis ‘Chavit’ Singson. However, the group is in the process of being evicted from the property by the PCGG.
Former Marcos associate Jose Campos surrendered the property to the PCGG in 1986, with the Supreme Court only ruling it was a public property in August 2011.
PCGG’s other tempting offer is a 2,885-square metre prime property near the EDSA, a major thoroughfare, in the Mandaluyong area, worth P129.8 million (Dh11.53 million). The PCGG office is based there and it is near the Robinson’s building owned Chinese tycoon John Gokongwei along the EDSA.
Media entities and other holdings
The PCGG is also offering a total of P4 billion (Dh355.3 million) for two media entities: P3 billion (Dh267 million) for the sale of assets and the franchise of the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp (formerly Channel 13); and P1 billion (Dh88.8 million) for DWAN Radio.
PCGG is also selling 14 sequestered minor real estate properties found nationwide — in northern Luzon, Metro Manila’s suburban areas, central Luzon, southern Luzon, and the central Philippines.
Also included in the sale are seven shareholdings of business associates that fronted for Marcos in oil companies such as Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp, Benguet Consolidated Inc, Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co, Oriental Petroleum and Mining Corp, Philodrill Corp, Philippine Oil Geothermal Energy Inc and Trans-Asia Oil and Mineral Corporation.
The PCGG is also selling the share portfolios of Marcos business associates in 11 other firms — Chemfields Inc; Imperial Insurance; Marcventures Holdings Inc; Philippine Airlines Holdings Inc; Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co; Phil Overseas Telecommunications Corp; Phil National Construction Corp; Puerto Azul Golf and Country Club; Oceanic Wireless; Radio Phils Network Inc; and Showa United Food Inc.
The most popular on PCGG’s list includes 400 pieces of jewellery belonging to the former first lady. They were initially offered at P112.5 million (Dh9.99 million).
Imelda Marcos left 300 pieces of jewellery at Malacanang, the presidential palace when the family fled the country. Sixty more were confiscated by airport authorities from her friend, Greek national Demetrious Roumeliotes in 1986.
The PCGG did not mention the pieces of jewellery confiscated from Marcos in Hawaii, where she and her family landed after fleeing Manila.
Recent sales
Recently, the PCGG sold four sequestered real estate properties belonging to the former strongman for a total of P411.25 million (Dh36.53 million). They included a lot in posh Wack-Wack, in Metro Manila’s suburban Mandaluyong City; a 4,038 square metre IRC Mapalad property in Metro Manila’s suburban Parañaque City; and big compound that was fronted by Swiss businessman Hans Menzi, including a hotel called Banaue Inn, in Baguio City, a summer capital in northern Luzon.
Wack Wack was sold to the highest bidder, at P127.057 million (from a floor offer of P96 million) on December 2011; Mapalad Property, at P247 million, lower than a high offer of P278.6 million; and the Hanz Menzi compound, at P37.2 million (from a low offer of P93.01 million), on April 24, 2012, the PCGG reported.
As of now, the PCGG has already turned over to the National Treasury P164 billion in proceeds from the sale of ill-gotten assets owned by the Marcoses, the PCGG chief said.
When the PCGG was created in 1986, it estimated the Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth at $35 billion. The figure has since been revised down and officially stands at $10 billion (Dh36.73 billion).
