(Updated) President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has dismissed the government’s pursuit to recover his family’s ill-gotten wealth as “propaganda” and “have been shown to be untrue.”
This is false.
STATEMENT
In a March 4 interview with the president on Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s 7:30 program, journalist Sarah Ferguson mentioned that Philippine courts “acknowledge” not only atrocities but also the plunder and corruption that occurred during the regime of his father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
The president let out a nervous laugh in response, prompting Ferguson to ask what was so funny and did he not want to see the plundered money returned to the Filipino people. Marcos replied:
“Cases were filed against me, my family, the estate, etcetera, and up to now, we have, the assertions that were made, we have been shown to be untrue.”
Source: ABC News In-depth YouTube Channel, Single ‘mistake’ could trigger South China Sea conflict, warns Philippines President | 7.30, March 4, 2024, watch from 14:45 to 14:57
Ferguson pressed Marcos, mentioning that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) still has to recover a “large amount of money” from his family. To this, the president said:
“I think that having seen the facts, as they have been slowly revealed, further true investigation, not propaganda, but actual true investigation, the court cases and investigations by all kinds of NGOs, different agencies, that has changed and people can see that it was propaganda.”
Source: watch from 15:40 to 16:09
FACT
At least three Supreme Court cases affirm the existence of the Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth, specifically the $658-million Swiss bank deposits, the $3.37-million assets of a shell company owned by Marcos Sr., and $110,000 worth of jewelry known as the Malacañang collection. In all three cases, the SC ordered the forfeiture of these assets in favor of the Philippine government.
The rulings pointed out that such assets and properties that Marcos Sr. and former first lady Imelda Marcos acquired were “manifestly and patently disproportionate to their aggregate salaries as public officials.”
(Read VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Narvacan Mayor Chavit Singson wrongly claims $650M Marcos Swiss bank deposits are ‘not ill-gotten’ and VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Claims that Marcos cases and ill-gotten wealth are fiction are FALSE)
The president repeated a false claim that the Marcos family were left with “nothing” when they were exiled to Hawaii following his father’s ouster during the 1986 People Power Revolution.
(Read VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Marcos wrongly claims family landed ‘with nothing’ when exiled in Hawaii)
BACKSTORY
Three days after the fall of Marcos Sr., the late president Corazon Aquino created the PCGG to recover all ill-gotten wealth acquired by the disgraced president, his immediate family, relatives, and cronies in the Philippines and abroad.
As of 2022, the PCGG has recovered P265-billion ill-gotten wealth and is yet to recover P125 billion more.
Editor’s note: This article was updated to correct the name of the Presidential Commission on Good Government or PCGG.
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Sources
Supreme Court of the Philippines, G.R. No. 152154, July 15, 2003
Supreme Court of the Philippines, G.R. No. 189434, April 25, 2012
Supreme Court of the Philippines, G.R. No. 213027, Jan. 18, 2017
Official Gazette of the Philippines, Executive Order No. 1, s. 1986, Feb. 28, 1986
GMA News Online, PCGG: No new cases against the Marcoses expected over ill-gotten wealth, Aug. 24, 2022
Inquirer.net, PCGG paradox: Agency battles abolition calls, Aug. 25, 2022
PhilStar.com, House bill seeks PCGG abolition; functions transferred to DOJ, Sept. 12, 2022
(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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