PCGG seeks turnover of Arelma account to RP

MANILA, Philippines – The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) will ask the Bank of America (BA), which took over the fallen New York stock brokerage firm Merrill Lynch last year, to immediately transfer the late President Ferdinand Marcos’ $35-million Arelma account to the Philippine government.

The Sandiganbayan recently ordered the forfeiture of the Arelma account handled by Merrill Lynch after the US Supreme Court, in a decision on June 12, 2008, overturned a ruling of a California appellate court to award the money to 9,539 human rights victims during the 20-year Marcos regime.

The Merrill Lynch investment was set up in 1972 by then President Marcos through Panamanian firm Arelma S.A. that invested $2 million with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., in New York.

By 2008, the money had grown to $35 million.

The PCGG and the Office of the Solicitor General had gone to the US late last year to check on the status of the Arelma account following the takeover of Merrill Lynch by BA and found the money intact.

“The Sandiganbayan has forfeited the Arelma assets in favor of the republic,” Bautista pointed out.

Human rights victims, however, are trying to claim compensation from the estate of the late strongman.

Jaime Bautista, former ambassador to Russia and now PCGG commissioner for legal affairs, said any attempt either from the Marcos family or the human rights victims to stop the transfer of the account to the government would not prosper.

Lawyers for martial law human rights victims have argued that the Merill Lynch investment should be forfeited in favor of their clients to satisfy the $2 billion awarded to them by US district court judge Manuel Real.

The US Supreme Court, however, agreed with the Philippine government’s argument that the dispute over the ownership of the money should be settled in Philippine courts.

“We will check if the assets can already be transferred at the soonest time,” Bautista said.

The Arelma account was said to have been set up by Marcos with Filipino-Chinese businessman Jose Yao Campos and Swiss banker Jean Louis Sunier in September 1972.

The $2-million initial deposit Marcos posted to create the account was believed taken from one of his Swiss dollar accounts.

The account was put in the name of Arelma Inc., formed by Sunier, to hide its real ownership.

Merrill Lynch, founded in 1914 and the largest US brokerage firm before its merger with BA, was reportedly one of the Wall Street financial institutions hardest hit by the credit crisis caused by the sub-prime housing mortgage mess.

BA acquired the firm in the middle of September last year for $50 billion.