Imelda regains Tolosa property

TACLOBAN CITY — Former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos has regained possession of her family’s 46-hectare property in Barangay Olot in Tolosa town, where her parents are buried.

Mrs. Marcos said she has finally been given justice because the government had no right to sequester the multimillion-peso property which has belonged to the Romualdez family for generations.

"The Romualdezes acquired this property even before the Americans came," she said. "My grandfather acquired this property even before President Marcos and Imelda were born. My father was born here."

Marcos said the property, which she called "Paradise Regained," had been desecrated since the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) took over it in 1986 after the overthrow of her husband, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

"The place is not like what it is," she said. "Now it has been vandalized. It has been used for questionable purposes. They made little motels and (which they) rented to couples for a few hours. They have desecrated a place that is paradise and I don’t like it."

Mrs. Marcos said she would bring back the lost beauty of the Olot estate which the PCGG had rented out to two tenants and opened to the public.

"I’m happy that I’m back in Olot," she said. "Eventually, justice, though it’s kinda exceedingly slow, it’s kinda exceedingly well. I’m happy because Olot for me is paradise and for me this is paradise regained."

The San Juanico Golf Club leased the estate’s nine-hole golf course, while the swimming pool, bathhouse and beach front were rented out and named the Olot Beach Resort, she added.

Mrs. Marcos said her parents, Don Vicente Orestes and Doña Remedios Trinidad, are buried at the Olot estate.

Meanwhile, Renior Dauag, PCGG OIC-regional officer, said he has "no knowledge" that Mrs. Marcos had taken over the Olot estate and that he would talk with the PCGG head office in Mandaluyong City.

He would meet with Mrs. Marcos within the week, Dauag added.

Last March, the Sandiganbayan ordered the PCGG to return the sequestered property to Mrs. Marcos, but the agency filed a motion for reconsideration.

The anti-graft court rejected the PCGG’s motion two months ago and ordered the property’s immediate return.