Rappler tour exposes Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth, highlights PCGG role

CHEERS TO Rappler‘s exclusive video tour of New York with Ruben Carranza, former commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG). Clearly not your usual tour of the Big Apple, the video showed the buildings bought by the Marcoses during the dictatorship. 

The video was accompanied by an article on the subject. 

Those assets constitute concrete evidence of the family’s “hidden wealth” – prime real estate in New York City. Written, produced, shot and edited by Rambo Talabong, it premiered on August 27. 

The report jogged the public mind about the important work of the PCGG, amid recent suggestions in the House to abolish it. In a hearing on August 25, current PCGG chair John Agbayani asserted that the commission remains relevant. He noted that as of December 2021, it has recovered PHP 265 billion in ill-gotten wealth, an astounding amount given the difficulties in tracing assets which have been kept hidden under various schemes. 

It is perhaps not surprising, given the victory of President Marcos Jr., that a number of lawmakers have argued against the continued existence of the agency. Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez asked. “If in 36 years it has not yet finished (its mission), it has failed. How can it be continuing 36 years down the line?” Rodriguez took note of the government’s policy thrust to “rightsize” the bureaucracy, arguing that other agencies such as the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice (DOJ) could take on the PCGG’s function of investigating and filing graft and corruption cases.

The PCGG has had its fair share of failures. But it should also be credited for its hard-won victories. In less than six minutes, Talabong showed the following buildings and the amounts for their purchase:  

• Marcos Building (now called Trump Building), 40 Wall Street, $71 million
• Olympic Tower, 641 5th Avenue Apartments, $700,000
• Crown Building, 430 5th Avenue, $51 million
• Herald Center, 34th Street and Broadway, $25 million
• 200 Madison Avenue, $50 million

Talabong noted in the article that these buildings have been seized by the PCGG with the help of the US Congress. The recovery of the properties is detailed in a PCGG report, which noted how most of the buildings bought by the Marcoses were not remitted to the Philippine government at full price due to mortgages, payment for the  Marcoses’ debts, and other reasons.

Carranza also mentioned jewelry which were bought in the vicinity of these buildings in New York. Carranza described the luxurious lifestyle of the Marcoses, he mentioned that in a Bvlgari jewelry store near the Crown Building, Imelda Marcos bought herself a birthday gift amounting to $1.4 million in 1978. In another store in front of the Crown Building, Imelda also bought jewelry worth $2 million. 

The multi-million dollar jewelry bill as evidence went viral and was reported by Philstar.com in 2016 and reported as fact by ABS-CBN in April 2022. It has also been reported by the New York Daily News and the Los Angeles Times.

“Tapos na ang tour natin pero hindi pa tapos ang pakikipaglaban  sa mga Marcos. ‘Wag kalimutan na yung mga nakita niyong building, ilan lang ‘yun sa mga ninakaw nila mula sa Pilipino, ilan lang ‘yun sa mga ninakaw nila, gamit ang sampung bilyong dolyares na ill-gotten wealth. Ngayong pangulo na si Marcos Jr., huwag niyo siyang hayaan na burahin ang kasaysayan,” Carranza ended.

(Our tour may be over, but our fight against the Marcoses is not. Do not forget the buildings you saw. These are only a few of the many things the Marcoses stole from Filipinos. These represent only a few of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses worth $10 billion. Now that Marcos Jr. is President, don’t let him erase history.)

At the end of the video, Talabong noted a PH court ruling in 2003 that estimated the wealth of the Marcoses during the period as amounting only to $304,372. The amounts which allowed them to buy these buildings and more were ill-gotten and should be returned to the national coffers. 

Rappler asked for comment from the Marcoses and Tantocos but received no reply. While the Tantocos were not detailed in the video, CMFR notes that in March 1988, the PCGG filed a civil case in the Sandiganbayan for the recovery of ill-gotten wealth from the Marcoses, Bienvenido Tantoco Sr., Bienvenido Tantoco Jr., Gliceria Tantoco, Ma. Lourdes Tantoco-Pineda and Dominador Santiago. The Tantocos and Santiago were accused of serving as dummies or agents for the Marcos couple in unlawfully acquiring assets, jewelry, expensive artworks and real estate, including properties in New York.

The presentation was done with a light touch but it did not detract from the gravity of its findings: the enrichment of a ruling family that gave them so much wealth as to acquire such Manhattan properties. The reality of it all should silence voices questioning the relevance of the PCGG at this time. It also raises questions which the video did not pretend to ask or answer, but should stir the public to think about: With such information, how could Filipinos choose to elect Marcos Jr. to lead the country?