Sandigan asked: Seize Imelda’s $35-M account

Government lawyers asked the Sandiganbayan yesterday to sequester some $35 million in cash and blue chip shares of a reputable firm in New York which the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda allegedly stashed during their tenure.

In an 11-page motion for partial summary judgment, the Office of the Solicitor General, representing the Presidential Commission on Good Government, said it is about time the first division of the anti-graft court seize part of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth.

The OSG and PCGG invoked the July 2003 ruling of the Supreme Court declaring some $684 million of the Marcoses’ money as "unlawfully acquired."

Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo and PCGG Commissioner Ruben Carranza said the Marcoses’ Arelma account, now estimated to have reached $35 million from $3.3 million in 1991, is now reportedly "stashed" in Merrill Lynch Asset Management Inc. in New York.

They said this was one of the Swiss accounts used by the Marcos couple, through their cronies, "for the purpose of laundering their filthy riches."

Besides the account, the PCGG said the Marcoses maintained five dummy foundations to hide their ill-gotten wealth.

While Imelda has denied ownership of the account, the PCGG said she can still be pinned down on what lawyers call "negative pregnant," or a blanket denial with an admission that it was lawfully obtained.

"It is a denial pregnant with an admission of substantial facts which are not squarely denied. It is in effect an admission of the averments it was directed at," the PCGG said.