PCGG, Ombudsman digging deeper into Imee’s offshore accounts

MANILA, Philippines - The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) is working with the Office of the Ombudsman in conducting a deeper investigation into the recently uncovered offshore accounts of Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos.

A PCGG evaluation team headed by commissioners Maita Chan-Gonzaga and Vicente Gengos Jr. submitted a 12-page preliminary report to the commission on Marcos’ reported trust accounts in the British Virgin Islands.

The team is trying to determine if the offshore accounts contain ill-gotten wealth accumulated during the 20-year regime of her father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The commission will furnish the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice with the report once finalized, the PCGG said in a statement sent to reporters yesterday.

“The commission is now closely coordinating with the ombudsman on a joint investigation. At this time the preliminary report will be kept confidential due to the sensitive nature of the matter and until certain legal and factual matters are verified and resolved,” the PCGG said.

A report recently published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which includes the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), showed Marcos as one of the beneficiaries of Sintra Trust that was formed in June 2002 in the British Virgin Islands.

Marcos, the eldest child of the late dictator, did not declare the Sintra Trust and two other offshore accounts in her latest statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), the report said.

According to the report, other beneficiaries of the trust funds are Ferdinand Richard Michael, Matthew Joseph and Fernando Martin – sons of Imee Marcos and her estranged husband Tomas Manotoc.

The ICIJ said “scores of documents” showed that the 57-year-old Marcos was also a financial adviser of Sintra Trust.

As financial adviser, Marcos had the power to make investment decisions on trust assets held by banks and other financial institutions, the ICIJ report added.

Marcos is seeking reelection unopposed in next month’s polls.

The late President Corazon Aquino created the PCGG in 1986 to recover ill-gotten wealth amassed by the Marcoses and their cronies.

The agency has so far recovered $4 billion in Marcos ill-gotten wealth, including Swiss bank accounts and US properties.