EDITORIAL - Stolen assets

The value of the jewelry amassed by the Marcoses, which the Presidential Commission on Good Government intends to put on the auction block, is estimated at P704.8 million. This is for the batch seized when the Marcoses fled the people power revolution in 1986 and found themselves in exile in Hawaii.

The jewelry is being sold after being established to be ill-gotten. The question can’t be repeated often enough: if these are dirty assets, how come no one has been punished for the large-scale illegal acquisition of wealth?

That kind of wealth can guarantee the best justice that money can buy. Any serious effort to hold the Marcoses accountable should include a lifestyle check on every government prosecutor, judge, justice and other members of the justice system who handled or was ever connected to the probe of all the ill-gotten wealth cases, especially those that have been dismissed. 

The jewelry collection is apart from other batches that the PCGG intends to sell. The so-called Roumeloites collection is said to be even more staggering. Found in a package addressed to Imelda Marcos and seized from a Greek national intending to fly out to Hong Kong in March 1986, the items include an eye-popping Bulgari bangle bracelet with a 30.76-carat diamond valued at $1 million at the time. Another batch, left behind at Malacañang, is in the custody of the Palace. The PCGG also intends to sell P1.081 billion worth of real estate properties and stock shares. 

No Philippine president could have legally amassed that kind of wealth on standard government salary rates, even in 20 years. As incredibly dismaying as the magnitude of the loot, however, is the failure of the government to hold anyone accountable for corruption on a grand scale.

That failure has been a key factor in institutionalizing corruption in this country. Ferdinand Marcos has escaped justice and is even buried in the heroes’ cemetery. But his widow Imelda has so far managed not only to avoid conviction but has even served as a member of the House of Representatives.

 The Duterte administration, which has shown a soft spot for the Marcoses, must make sure the dictator’s heirs will not get in the way of the sale of stolen assets. Human rights victims of the dictatorship must also get their share in those proceeds.

People are waiting for even one of the looters of public coffers to go to prison. Unless this happens, impunity will reign and any campaign against corruption will be a sham.