Eyes Wide Open While Some Media Turn a Blind Eye to Marcos History

 

THE GOVERNMENT raised by People Power in 1986 set as one of its goals the recovery of national wealth plundered by Ferdinand Marcos, estimated in the billions. To do this, then President Corazon Aquino established the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG),  as a special body “responsible for the recovery of ill-gotten wealth accumulated by former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, his immediate family, relatives, subordinates and close associates, whether located in the Philippines or abroad.”

A former senator, the Honorable Jovito Salonga served as the first chairman of PCCG, which initiated the consultations with local and international banks in order to trace money flows. He filed the government’s claim to the Marcos Swiss deposits through Swiss lawyers Salvioni, Fontanet and Leuenberger.

Three decades after the dictatorship, the government has succeeded in sequestering only some of the ill-gotten wealth. But the Marcoses have not been held accountable nor all their cronies liable for illegally amassing wealth during their time in government.

And judging from media, not too many seemed to think it important to know much about the background of cases on Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth.

On June 19, the Supreme Court (SC) junked the petition of PCGG (Republic of the Philippines vs Cuenca et. al. G.R No. 19893) barring the quasi-judicial agency from recovering PHP51 billion of behest loans in the case involving former construction magnate Rodolfo Cuenca, and his son Roberto Cuenca.

Media duly reported that the decision was based on the failure of the PCGG to submit true copies, providing mere photocopies, of the documents as evidence, in violation of the court’s best-evidence rule. Discounting the photocopies, the remaining body of evidence was not enough to prove that the respondents engaged in schemes to unlawfully accumulate wealth.

The high court’s ruling upheld the 2010 and 2011 decision of the Sandiganbayan, which threw out the case for the same reason.

CMFR monitored news reports of broadcast, online and print media from June 20 to June 27, finding little historical context of the government’s campaign to recover Marcos’ wealth. Media also missed the important point that this was only one of  multiple cases filed against the Marcoses and their cronies; that there are more filed in court as well as cases that had already been won by the PCGG. The missing background and lack of pertinent information all worked to support the idea that the Marcoses and allies are not guilty of enriching themselves in office; and that cases filed against them are all trumped up charges motivated by politics with no basis in reality.  

CMFR cheers the exceptions to this missed context: ANC’s Beyond Politics, Manila Bulletin and GMA News Online for providing depth and historical context to the issue.

Historical Background

In Manila Bulletin’s report, PCGG argued that Imelda Marcos and Rodolfo Cuenca, former President of Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines (CDCP) now known as the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC), used the company to obtain contracts from different government projects to acquire ill-gotten assets (“SC denies PCGG petition to recover P51-B in Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth”).

In the same report, PCGG also claimed that CDCP obtained public works contracts in billions of pesos from the then Department of Public Works, now the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and the National Irrigation Administration, such as the construction of sugar centrals, the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corporation (PASAR), the Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corporation (Philphos), and the Light Railway Transit Project (LRT), among others, under terms and conditions noticeably unfavorable to the government and, in effect, the Filipino people.

GMA News Online went further by reporting on June 21 that the PCGG was able to recover more than PHP171 billion of ill-gotten wealth from the Marcos family despite losing civil case against Imelda Marcos and Rodolfo Cuenca, thus establishing a pattern of schemes siphoning funds to private pockets during the Marcos regime.  (“PCGG: More than P171 billion in Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth recovered”).

The same report also identified other cases where the PCGG was able to recover ill-gotten wealth from the Marcos family and their accomplices, like the money recovered in the Marcoses’ Swiss accounts which they returned to government in 1997 and an additional PHP35 billion from the Swiss funds six years later. The agency was also able to reclaim cash worth PHP1 billion stashed away in Singapore in 2012 and the family’s properties in Baguio City, San Juan City, Pasig City, and Quezon City.

According to Lynda Jumilia in the June 26 episode of Beyond Politics Despite these recoveries, there are still 200 pending cases against the Marcos family and their cronies filed in different courts, 85 of which is in Sandiganbayan.

Proper Context

In the same episode, Jumilla interviewed former Commission on Human Rights Chair Etta Rosales who discussed the experience of what had actually happened during the Marcos era. The Marcoses and their cronies established a labyrinth of dummy companies and fake names so they could not be traceable and the PCGG has been chasing after them ever since.

“It is questionable and disappointing that you would have the court say that it is a presumption of regularity. How can you say that when you have a whole history of graft and corruption committed by Marcos and his cronies during the time of the dictatorship?” She explained.

Etta Rosales added that leaving everything to the legal system is a lost cause and so the country must rely on its informed, empowered and committed citizens just like what happened to the People Power Revolution that overthrew the dictatorship.

Media vs. Historical Revisionism

CMFR, in a previous monitor, noted the role of media in providing the historical perspective in current reports. Journalists need to do their job of ensuring the accuracy of what they report to the public in both fact and context, especially in a time when social media feed fallacies about the Marcos era. In reporting the 30th anniversary of the People Power Revolution, some reports tried to challenge the pattern of revisionism but these were published only days after the anniversary, with little effect on the general falsification of the record undertaken by some sectors. (“EDSA People Power: Inadequate Challenge to Marcos Revisionism”).

32 years since the country’s liberation from the Marcos dictatorship, only some of the ill-gotten wealth have been recovered by the PCGG. No one has been found guilty of graft and corruption. Loopholes and technicalities have hampered the recovery, but the failure to mount cases to establish guilt sets back the restoration of integrity as a value in public service.

Historical revisionism looms and the danger of forgetting the lessons of history is real. Just as the mosquito press shared the news about hidden wealth in the early eighties, the media today must decide to play a role in setting the record straight  to counter the peril of forgetfulness.