President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s assertion that they “had nothing left” as “everything was taken from [them]” when their family was flown to exile in Hawaii following the ouster of his father in February 1986 is false.
STATEMENT
During a sit-down interview in Melbourne on March 4, Australian Broadcasting Corp. anchor Sarah Ferguson brought up the Marcos family’s history of corruption. The President downplayed and dismissed these assertions as mere propaganda.
He then mentioned that cases of corruption had been filed against his family and they had signed several quitclaims on those. He continued:
“Everything was taken from us. We were taken to Hawaii. Everything. Everything was taken from us. We had nothing left.”
Source: ABC News In-Depth, Single ‘mistake’ could trigger South China Sea conflict, warns Philippines President | 7.30, March 4, 2024, watch from 15:18 – 15:29
FACT
The Marcoses did not leave the Philippines empty-handed.
This is not the first time the President made this claim. VERA Files fact checked in November last year a similar statement in a meeting with the Filipino community in Hawaii.
(Read VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Marcos wrongly claims family landed ‘with nothing’ when exiled in Hawaii)
![VERA Files Fact Check: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s assertion that they “had nothing left” as "everything was taken from [them]” when their family was flown to exile in Hawaii following the ouster of his father in February 1986 is false.](https://verafiles.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/WEB-ENG-Marcos-on-Hawaii-exile.jpg)
In 1986, the United States Customs Services confiscated sets of jewelry, valued between $436,420 and $559,630 by Christie’s auction house in 1991, which the Marcoses brought to Honolulu. This collection, known as the Hawaii Collection, was handed over to the Philippine government in 1992.
Additionally, the Marcoses brought over P397-million worth of bank certificates, now deemed as ill-gotten wealth following a 2021 Sandiganbayan ruling ordering their return to the Philippine government.
Numerous reports also indicate that the Marcoses transported 22 crates of cash, totaling P27 million in freshly printed Philippine notes, along with 24 gold bricks and over 400 pieces of jewelry, among other items, to Honolulu.
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Sources
Supreme Court of the Philippines E-Library, G.R. No. 213027, Jan. 18, 2017
Ombudsman of the Philippines, Civil Case No. 0181, Sept. 24, 2021
On other items brought to Honolulu
- Los Angeles Times, Marcos Party’s Baggage Valued at $7.7 Million, Mar. 25, 1986
- GMA News Online, What Marcoses brought to Hawaii after fleeing PHL in ’86: $717-M in cash, $124-M in deposit slips, Feb. 25, 2016
- The Guardian, The $10bn question: what happened to the Marcos millions?, May 7, 2016
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
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