Marcos denies knowledge of assets

Associated Press

The son of the late Philippines President Ferdinand E. Marcos appeared before a federal judge in Honolulu yesterday and denied that his family has any known available assets to start paying a multibillion-dollar jury award to alleged victims of the Marcos regime.

Marcos

"My client supports the settlement and its prompt funding, but he's not legally obligated to pay his father's debts," attorney John Bartko said. "The Philippine government is responsible for providing the money."

Real is overseeing the distribution of assets in a class-action lawsuit, whose plaintiffs won a $2 billion judgment against the Marcos estate in 1995. The award has grown through the years to $3.7 billion with interest.

Appeals have dragged out court proceedings over the past decade, and to date none of the victims has received any money.

More than 9,000 Filipinos are seeking reparations for alleged human-rights abuses by the elder Marcos, who was brought to Hawai'i by the United States in 1986 after being deposed.

Marcos Jr., through his lawyer, said he doesn't know where the assets are, and that he's cooperating with the court to try and find them.

Sherry Broder, an attorney for the plaintiffs, challenged the notion that Marcos Jr. and his family, including former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, were unable to start paying the money awarded by the court.

"There are personal assets," Broder said. "Imelda Marcos rented a plane for $750,000 to fly back to the Philippines. She still lives a very glorious lifestyle."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Friday rejected a request by the plaintiffs to recover $683 million in Marcos' assets that were transferred from a Swiss account to the Philippine government, which claims ownership of the money.

The three-judge panel said American courts could not overturn a ruling by a foreign country's supreme court, upholding the decision in July 2004 by the Philippines' highest court to deposit the money in the government's coffers.

Philippine laws stipulate that all of Marcos' allegedly ill-gotten wealth be used to finance the government's land-reform program. However, presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye has said the government is working to amend the law to allow the victims to be compensated.

The plaintiffs are pursuing other avenues to collect money.

They are trying to seize $22 million in Marcos' assets found in a bank in Singapore, but the Philippine government claims ownership of that money as well, said Jon van Dyke, a professor of international law at the University of Hawai'i.

He said the plaintiffs also are trying to litigate their case against the Marcos estate in Philippine courts but haven't gotten past a court order requiring the posting of a $7 million bond to have the case heard.

Last month, the appeals court upheld a previous ruling by Real freezing Marcos' assets that are being held in the Philippines and other banks worldwide.

That money includes $40 million that has been held in an escrow account because of competing claims of ownership by the Marcos estate, the Philippine government and the human-rights victims.

Attorneys for Arelma Corp., a Panamanian financial company set up by Marcos that originally held the $40 million, appealed that ruling.

Arguments in the appeal are scheduled before the 9th Circuit in March.