Government seeks seizure of FM cronies’ assets

Government lawyers asked the Sandiganbayan yesterday to seize the alleged ill-gotten wealth stashed in Swiss banks by a couple and their in-law who were cronies of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), in a 23-page forfeiture suit, said the Swiss deposits of Marcos’ social secretary Fe Roa Gimenez, her husband Ignacio and his half-brother Roberto Bautista Olanday amounting to $3.2 million and 3 million deutsche marks, should be forfeited in favor of the government.

The assets of the spouses, according to the PCGG, were illegally acquired as they were "grossly disproportionate" to their jointly declared net income of P955,773 from 1981 to 1985.

During these years, Mrs. Gimenez was in Malacañang working directly under the office of former first lady Imelda Marcos.

The PCGG, which is represented by the Office of the Solicitor General, said Mrs. Gimenez was only getting P58,000 a year in 1981 although this was increased to P81,696 in 1985, a year before the late strongman was ousted from power. But in December 1985, the couple already had a declared total net worth of P1.3 million.

Despite their "limited income," the PCGG said the spouses accumulated as much as P93.7 million during the time Mrs. Gimenez was working in the Palace.

The PCGG-OSG petition stated that the couple "conspired" with the Marcoses in unlawfully acquiring the funds, which were later deposited in Adler Bank in Zurich.

"Considering the financial standing, earning capacity and net worth of the conjugal properties of the spouses, they could not have legitimately acquired the funds that were deposited in the Swiss banks," a portion of the document read.

They added that while Adler 587510 account is in Olanday’s name, "the truth is he is a mere dummy for the spouses, who were nominee-agents of the Marcoses in certain business and financial transactions."

Bank documents gathered by government investigators left a trail that indicated the "spouses were regular transferees/recipients of ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses."

Investigators also revealed that the couple tried to "conceal" this in their "dubious attempt to place funds beyond the reach of the Philippine government."

To show how lavish the couple’s lifestyle was, the PCGG detailed the checks the couple issued in the early 1980s. These include, among others, $300,000 paid to a New York-based jewelry store in June 1982, $52,000 paid to Cartier, $100,000 to Bulgari, $323,000 to Hammer Galleries in December 1982 and $268,000 to an antique store in December 1987.

In March 1986, or barely a month after the Marcos family fled to Hawaii, PCGG said Ignacio Gimenez changed his name to Johnny Salvador Lee in an "attempt to hide the true ownership of the funds, all of which were not declared nor were proportionate to the lawful income of the spouses."