Robredo insists Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth a proven fact

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte was wrong when he said that there is no proof showing the Marcos family amassed ill-gotten wealth during the dictatorship, according to Vice President Leni Robredo and two former senators.

Robredo said court rulings both in the country and abroad prove that the Marcoses and their cronies stole government funds during the time of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. 

“It is not true that there is no proof because there are a lot of cases that have already been decided,” she said in Filipino.

“Aren’t they being asked to return the stolen money? In fact, there are victims of martial law that have already received reparations,” Robredo added.

She cited the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013 that sourced the P10-billion fund for reparations from ill-gotten wealth that Marcos hid in Swiss banks.

Coincidentally, Duterte on Friday signed a measure that would extend the validity of the funds.

Speaking with The Chiefs on Cignal TV’s One News on Friday night, former senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Rene Saguisag said the ill-gotten wealth amassed by the Marcoses are established facts.

“It has been established that there is indeed Marcos (ill-gotten) wealth,” Pimentel, a former Senate president and chair of the Blue Ribbon committee that investigated the matter, said.

“The ill-gotten wealth is very important. We should look for it, recover it and give it to the people,” he added in Filipino.

Saguisag cited a Supreme Court ruling recognizing that the Swiss accounts of the Marcoses are ill-gotten wealth.

“Money does not grow on trees,” Saguisag said, referring to the funds used to compensate victims of human rights violations during the martial law regime.