Some Imelda Marcos jewelry may have gone to Cory



Was former President Corazon Aquino given a box of jewelry encrusted with diamonds and other precious stones formerly owned by Mrs. Imelda R. Marcos?

Commissioner Ricardo Abcede of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) said Thursday that documents shown him tended to show this, although he needs proof before giving them credence.

Abcede said the document indicated that Ponciano Roque told a New York court hearing a racketeering case against Mrs. Marcos that Mrs. Aquino, then the newly installed president, received a box of diamonds that was taken from among those recovered from Malacañan after the People Power Revolution in 1986.

"If that is true, then the PCGG never received that box of diamonds. Perhaps, Mrs. Aquino could clarify this," Abcede told The Manila Times.

The court transcript, according to Abcede, cited Roque as saying somebody feasted on the jewelry before turning the rest to the PCGG.

Roque headed a task force against gambling created by Mrs. Aquino. He later became the chief of staff of then-Sen. Nikki Coseteng. Roque is a son-in-law of former Rep. Francisco Sumulong, an uncle of Mrs. Aquino.

Abcede would not give full credence to Roque’s assertion. He said that as a lawyer, he would consider that as a mere allegation subject to proof.

He said a transcript of Roque’s testimony, as well as those of Dr. Angelita Reyes and Mrs. Margarita "Tingting" Cojuangco, before the New York court is among the documents being kept by the PCGG.

Roque, Reyes and Cojuangco were reportedly in the group that went to Malacañan after President Ferdinand Marcos and his family had fled to Honolulu. Reyes is the daughter of the business magnate Anselmo Roque and a sister of former Transportation Secretary Josie Lichauco. Cojuangco, the former Tarlac governor, is sister-in-law of Mrs. Aquino, being married to her younger brother, former Rep. Jose Cojuangco Jr.

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile said Thursday that some persons seen every day in the papers had already grabbed the choice jewelry of Mrs. Marcos before the "leftovers" were turned over to the PCGG at the home of Mrs. Reyes in Dasmariñas Village, Makati City. The leftovers are among the items to be auctioned off by the PCGG.

Enrile said the items up for auction are not as expensive and exquisite as those taken by the "persons you see in the papers every day."

Enrile, who had just been reappointed defense minister by Mrs. Aquino, said he was asked by then-PCGG Chairman Jovito Salonga to go to the house of Mrs. Reyes for the turnover of some documents and articles. He said Salonga and then-PCGG Commissioners Ramon Diaz and Jose Yap, and the former Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, were already there when he arrived.

Diaz later became PCGG chairman and Yap, Supreme Court chief justice. Both are now dead.

Enrile said anybody who doubts his story about the looting of Imelda’s jewelry can ask Salonga. He did not name those he believed to have helped themselves to the valuables before turning over the rest to the PCGG.

"Remember, the rich do not steal," he said with obvious irony.

Salonga’s book Presidential Plunder gave no conclusive statement on the reported looting of Mrs. Marcos’s jewelry before the supposed leftovers were turned over to the PCGG on March 1, 1986.

"What happened inside the Palace between February 28 up to the turnover to us of the documents and articles in the afternoon of March 1 is beyond the personal knowledge of then-Commissioner Yap and myself, but probably within the personal knowledge of the members of this group [who went inside the Palace]," Salonga wrote in his book.

He wrote that Reyes, Cojuangco and others went to Malacañan on February 28, 1986, where they found documents and articles, including jewelry. Enrile said the group forced open the safebox of Mrs. Marcos and scooped the jewelry into a valise. The pieces of jewelry, along with the bank contracts and trust instruments of the Marcoses in Swiss banks, were turned over to the PCGG the following day.

"Had I been allowed to take control of Malacañan, no looting would have happened," Enrile said.

Abcede said Enrile is a responsible member of the Senate, and he would not make idle charges without any basis.