$5M confiscated Marcos jewelry unrecorded, $1M cash missing – COA

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit has uncovered several irregularities in the recovery of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family.

In its annual audit report on the Bureau of Customs recently published on its website, the COA said the Marcoses' Roumeliotes Jewelry Collection remains unrecorded in the BOC books of accounts as of Dec. 31, 2016 or 31 years after it was confiscated in 1986.

The pieces were confiscated by the BOC on March 9, 1986 from Demetriou Roumeliotes, a Greek-American businessman and a friend of the Marcoses while he was attempting to smuggle them out from the Manila International Airport.

At present, the Roumeliotes jewelries are being kept in a vault at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

The COA said that while several appraisals were made on the Roumeliotes Collection over the years, no report was ever submitted to the BOC, thus, the collection was not recorded in its books of accounts.

“Verification disclosed that the Appraisal Report for the confiscated jewelries are not submitted from the time that these jewelries were confiscated until December 31, 2016,” the report read

“The non-submission of Appraisal Report for Roumeliotes Jewelry Collection at appraised value on the date of establishment of ownership resulted to non recording in the books of accounts thereby understating the assets and equity accounts and consequently, exposed these assets to possible risk of loss,” it added.

The COA said an inquiry with PCGG also revealed that the same collection was not recorded in its own books.

An appraisal held in 1988 sets the value of Roumeliotes Collection at a high of $5.315 million and at a low of $3.846 million, the COA records show.

The COA noted that international auctioneers Sotheby and Christie also made their respective inventory and appraisals of the Roumeliotes Collection in November 2015.

The COA said it has yet to receive a reply from the BOC regarding its request for copies of the two auctioneers' reports.

The COA recommended to the the BOC-Ninoy Aquino International Airport to secure copies of appraisal reports made on the Roumeliotes Collection and submit the same to the BOC chief accountant for proper recording in the books of accounts.

Composed of 60 pieces of jewelries and loose gemstones, the Roumeliotes Collection is deemed as the most expensive among the three alleged ill-gotten jewelry collections of the Marcoses.

The two other jewelry collections identified by the PCGG as part of the Marcos family's ill-gotten wealth were the Hawaii Collection discovered by United States customs officials hidden in baby diapers inside the family's luggage when they arrived in Hawaii in February 1986 and the least valuable Malacañang Collection composed of trinkets and semi-precious stones that family left behind in the Palace when the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was ousted from presidency.

Missing cash

Meanwhile, in a separate audit report on the Bureau of Treasury-National Government (BTr), the COA said $1 million in cash, which was part of the amount recovered by the PCGG in 2003 from the Marcos family's Swiss foundations, is now missing.

The COA records show that in June 2012, the PCGG remitted to the BTr a total of $10 million (P422.830 million) recovered from the Marcoses' Swiss dollar accounts.

The COA said the BTr set aside 10 percent or $1 million (P42.283 million) of the remitted amount to cover the PCGG's expenses in accordance with the General Appropriations Act of 2012.

The 2012 GAA allowed the allocation to the PCGG of “not more than ten percent” of the recovered ill-gotten wealth to cover its “recovery expenses, selling expenses, custodianship and other related costs attributable to the sold or administered assets.”

The COA said that while the BTr claimed that the $1 million cash was transferred to the Bureau's Treasury Single Account for proper handling, “no documents or other evidence of transfer can be provided... thus, existence of the fund cannot be established.”

“Inquiry with the Management disclosed that as of December 31, 2016, there was totally no fund being managed relative to the said amount,” the report read.

The COA said that while the BTr replied that it has already prepared a voucher to restore the amount, there was still no document submitted to prove the money's existence.

"However, the document evidencing the existence of the P40.784 million was still not provided to the Audit Team," the COA report read.

The COA directed the Bureau to submit the pertinent documents relative to the existence of the fund.