Secret Deals
It’s not just businessmen who are smelling secret deals. Filipinos — especially those who still remember the dark years of the dictatorship – are appalled at every court victory of the Marcoses. The public also can’t help noticing the current zeal – never before seen since the 1986 people power revolt — with which the Marcoses are moving to recover the enormous wealth frozen by the government on suspicion that the assets were amassed illegally.More than 21 years after the Marcoses were driven into exile in a popular revolt, most of those assets remain frozen, and the accusation that the assets were ill-gotten have not been established beyond doubt. Perhaps some folks just have all the luck. Or perhaps it helps to have a sympathetic administration on your side, with those tasked to go after ill-gotten wealth under tacit orders to lose interest in winning court cases. The Marcoses are refurbishing their old homes, and family members are moving aggressively to gain ownership of several large business holdings and pieces of prime real estate. Imelda Marcos is back in the party circuit, and is a special guest even in the party of a ranking official of the Presidential Commission on Good Government. The PCGG commissioner did not receive even a slap on the wrist for the incident; he probably knew Malacañang would not mind.
If you can’t win a court case, the next best thing is to go for a compromise settlement. Negotiations for such a settlement are normally best kept out of the public eye. But the public must first be informed that the administration has decided to abandon the judicial route and go for a settlement with the Marcoses. The key figures in any negotiation must be identified, and the public must know which assets are at stake.
Equally important, a mechanism must be in place to ensure that whatever wealth is turned over to the government will go to public coffers rather than the pockets of a handful of corrupt officials and private dealmakers. Those who remember the days of the dictatorship are also demanding an explanation for the source of the Marcoses’ wealth, which an honest Philippine president could never have amassed in 20 years. If the administration wants to settle with the Marcoses, there must be transparency in the process.
