After the Philippine apex court forfeited one of three seized collections in favor of the government, the jewelry of former first lady Imelda Marcos is being placed in auction, sources said.
“The government must get similar rulings from the Supreme Court on two other collections that were seized in 1986,” Gulf News quoted a source from the office of Reynaldo Munsayac, head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), as saying.
In a decision, written by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P.A. Sereno on January 18, (but belatedly released on February 13), the Supreme Court (SC) affirmed the ruling of the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court in 2014 that the ‘Malacanang Collection’ of Marcos, estimated between $110,055 (Dh404,210) and $153,089 (Dh562,265), was ill-gotten and should be forfeited in favour of the government, the report said.
It was reportedly in response to the claim of Marcos and her daughter Irene Marcos-Araneta, that the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court ruling initially in 2009, and later in 2014, was not just.
Confiscated from the presidential palace after the former first family was ousted by a people-backed military mutiny in 1986, the ‘Malacanang Collection’ included well-set semi-precious stones made into belts, brooches, and earrings; white diamonds in gold tiaras; pink diamonds in gold bracelets; and diamond in gold buckle. The PCGG kept them in the vaults of the Central Bank of the Philippines, said the news portal.
Estimating that the legal income of the Marcoses from 1966 to 1986 was $304,372.43, the Apex Court reportedly said, “The assailed [complained about] partial summary judgement dated 13 January 2014 and Resolution dated 11 June 2014 rendered by the Sandiganbayan are affirmed.”
“Whenever any public officer or employee has acquired during his incumbency an amount of property which is manifestly out of proportion to his salary as such public officer or employee and to his other lawful income and the income from legitimately acquired property, said property shall be presumed prima facie to have been unlawfully acquired,” the High Court argued. “Petitioners [Marcos and her daughter] failed to satisfactorily show that the properties were lawfully acquired; hence, the prima facie presumption that they were unlawfully acquired prevails,” it said.
The two other seized Marcos jewelry are called Hawaii Collection (seized by the US customs) and Roumeliotes Collection. All three seized collections were estimated earlier at $21 million, reported Gulf News.
