Showing posts with label Imelda Marcos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Imelda Marcos. Show all posts
MANILA, Philippines—This is a list of art pieces believed to have been purchased by former first lady Imelda Marcos during the martial law years. The list of paintings, many of them by European masters and worth millions of dollars each, was attached to a petition for writ of execution and turnover filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York by the lawyers of the victims of human rights violations during the Marcos dictatorship.
The victims are claimants in a case versus the Marcos estate, and who have won a judgment in 1995 and been awarded $2 billion in damages.
French impressionist Claude Monet’s painting “Water Lilies” ** had been illegally sold to a collector by Mrs. Marcos’ aid, Vilma Bautista, her coaccused for $32 million, but the buyer avoided litigation by paying $10 million which the claimants received in March. Two more—another painting by Monet (48) * and one by Alfred Sisley (7) *—could soon be recovered.
The list is the result of research and investigative work done by the claimants’ lawyers led by Robert Swift. The list has the artists’ names, titles of the paintings, medium used and size. The list may not be complete. Images of most of the masterpieces can be viewed on the Internet.
ARTIST NAME PAINTING TITLE PAINTING
1 Abraham Janssens “Peace and Abundance Binding the Arrows of War, aka Peace and Plenty Binding the Arrows of War” Oil on canvas, 150x118cm
2 Alessandro Botticelli “Madonna and Child” Tempera on panel, 37x29cm
3 Alessandro Magnasco “Christ Heals the Cripple” Oil on canvas, 93.5×70.5cm
4 Alessandro Magnasco
St. Jerome
Oil on canvas, 73×58.5cm
5 Alessandro Magnasco
Mother with Child
Oil on canvas, 40x30cm
6 Alessandro Magnasco
Couple of Farmers with Children
Oil on canvas, 40x30cm
7 Alfred Sisley
Langland Bay, 1887 *
8 Amedeo Modigliani
Jeanne Hebuterne
Oil on canvas, 51×22.25cm
9 Amico Di Sandro
Virgin and Child
Tempera on
panel, 58x58cm
10 Andrea Della Robbia
Madonna and Child
Terracotta relief, 40.5x23cm
(including frame)
11 Andrea Di Bodiaiuto
Enthroned Madonna
Surrounded by Saints
Tempera on panel, 66x67cm
12 Andrea Di Niccolo
St. Agostino
Tempera on panel, 161x54cm
13 Andrea Di Niccolo
St. Biagio
Tempera on
panel, 161x54cm
14 Andrew Wyeth
Moon Madness
15-32 Anna Mary Robertson Moses, aka Grandma Moses
Total of 18 pieces
33 Antonio Giovanni Canaletto
La Piazetta of Saint Marcus Square
Oil on canvas, 66x104cm
34 Antonio Giovanni Canaletto Padua Landscape
with Prato Della Valle
Oil on canvas, 42×85.5cm
35 Antonio Giovanni Canaletto
View of the Grand Canal in Front of Saint Marcus Square with the Doggia Palace
Oil on canvas, 66x104cm
36 Antonio Giovanni Canaletto
The San Marco Basin with the Island of San Giorgio
Oil on canvas, 61x99cm
37 Antonio Giovanni Canaletto
The Departure of the
Bucentaur on Ascension
Oil on canvas, 44x73cm
38 Antonio Giovanni Canaletto
Portico of a Venetian Palace
Oil on canvas, 128x93cm
39 Antonio Giovanni Canaletto
The Grand Canal with the
Rialto Bridge
Oil on canvas, 63x88cm
40 Barent Avercamp
Winter Pleasures with a Horse- Drawn Sleigh near Kampen
Oil on panel, 12×21
41 Benvenuto Di Giovanni
The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Tempera on
panel, 97×58
42 Bernardino Funagai
Resurrection with Two
Angels
Tempera on
panel, 42×62
43 Bonnard Pierre
Baignard Au Grand-Lemps,
1899
14.5×17
44 Camille Pissarro
Jardin de Kew Pres Dela Serre
21.25×25.5
45 Casper Netscher
Young Woman with a Parrot
Oil on panel, 34x27cm
46 Claude Monet
Rain, aka La Pluie
Oil on canvas, 24×29
47 Claude Monet
Le Bassin aux Nymphease **
aka Japanese Footbridge Over the Water-Lily Pond at Giverny
or Water Lilies
48 Claude Monet
L’Eglise et La Seine a Vetheuil * aka L’Eglise a Vetheuil
Oil on canvas, 23×28.5
49 David Teniers the Younger
A Rugged Hilly Landscape with Elegant Figures and Monks at a Grotto
Oil on canvas, 163x229cm
50 Dirk Hals
Interior with Musicians and Backgammon Players, 1628
Oil on panel, 30.13×53.75
51 Edgar Degas
Danseuse S’habillant
Pastel, 25.5×18.5
52 Edgar Degas
Trois Danseuses
Mixed media,
37.5×31.75
53 Edgar Degas
Le Petit Dejeuner a la Sortie
du Bain
Pastel, 121x92cm
54 Edouard Manet
Mary Laurent a la Violette, 1878
Pastel on linen, 22×14
55 El Greco
Coronation of the Virgin
56 Filippino Lippi
St. Julian and the Martyrdom of St. Catherine of Alexandria
Tempera on panel, 13.5x18cm
57 Fra Filippo Lippi
Madonna and Child, 1460
Oil on panel, 20×12
58 Francesco Guardi
Imaginary View with Marine Life, Building and Arch of
Triumph
Oil on canvas, 35x49cm
59 Francesco Guardi
Piazza San Marco
Oil on canvas, 51x94cm
60 Francesco Guardi
Parade of Allegoric Floats
in the Piazza San Marco
Oil on canvas, 67.5×91.5cm
61 Francesco Guardi
Caprice with Small Bay in
a Lagoon
Oil on canvas, 43×56.5cm
62 Francesco Guardi
Inside a Harem
Oil on canvas, 44x61cm
63 Francesco Guardi
Capricio
Oil on canvas, 10x18cm
64 Francesco Guardi
Triumph of a Roman Warrior
Oil on canvas, 70.5x52cm
65 Francesco Guardi
Basin of San Marco
Oil on canvas, 18x32cm
66 Francesco and
Antonio Guardi
At the Drinking Trough
Oil on canvas, 85x113cm
67 Francesco Zuccarelli
Landscape with Shepherd
Oil on canvas, 56x74cm
68 Francesco Zuccarelli
Landscape with Shepherdess
Oil on canvas, 56x74cm
69 Francesco Zuccarelli
Hillside Landscape
Oil on canvas, 78x118cm
70 Francesco Zuccarelli
Landscape
Oil on canvas, 64x83cm
71 Francesco Zugno
Death of Cleopatra
Oil on canvas, 120x87cm
72 Francesco Zugno
Meeting of Rinaldo and
Armida
Oil on canvas, 116x86cm
73 Francis Bacon
Self Portrait, 1963
Oil on canvas, 165x145cm
74 Francis Bacon
Masturbation
75 Francisco Goya
La Marqueza de Sta. Cruz
Oil on canvas, 49.75×81.75
76 Francisco de Zurbaran
The Holy Family
32.75×24
77 Francisco de Zurbaran
David and Goliath
78 Francois Boucher
The Apotheosis of Aeneas, 1747
79 Francois Boucher
L’Aube 17.5×10
80 Frans Hals
Portrait of a Young Man
Oil on canvas, 65x49cm
81 Frans Hals
Portrait of a Young Woman
82 Friend of Piero della Francesca
Saving of Napoleone Orsini Fallen from a Rock
Tempera on
panel, 38x68cm
83 Gerrit von Honthorst
The Seduction
Oil on canvas, 41.75×54.38
84 Gaspare Diziani
Heracles, Deianeira and the Centaur Nessus
Oil on canvas, 78x98cm
85 Giacomo Amigoni
Bacchanal
Oil on canvas, 64x82cm
86 Gianantonio Guardi
Temperance
Oil on canvas, 155x122cm
87 Gianantonio Guardi
The Fortress
Oil on canvas, 155x122cm
88 Giandomenico Tiepolo
The Minuet
Oil on canvas, 79x109cm
89 Giandomenico Tiepolo
Bust of Bearded Oriental Man with Turban
Oil on canvas, 72x54cm
90 Giandomenico Tiepolo
Bust of Bearded Oriental Man
Oil on canvas, 65x45cm
91 Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio
Madonna with Child
Oil on panel, 40x30cm
92 Giovanni Battista Crosato
Salome
Oil on canvas, 63x108cm
93 Giovanni Battista
Piazzetta
Greedy Child and Miserly Old Woman
Oil on canvas, 45x38cm
94 Giovanni Battista
Pittoni
Holy Family
Oil on canvas, 38x49cm
95 Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Portrait of a Bearded Man
Oil on canvas, 48.2x38cm
96 Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Madonna with Child Among St. Anthony, St. Francis and St. Ludwig of Toulouse
Oil on canvas, 51×31.5cm
97 Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Portrait of a Young Man
Oil on canvas, 48.2x38cm
98 Giovanni Bellini
Madonna with Child
Oil on panel, 75×57.5
99 Giuseppe Zais
Open-Air Minuet
Oil on canvas, 122x145cm
100 Giuseppe Zais
Large Landscape with Figures
Oil on canvas, 280x372cm
101 Giuseppe Zais
Landscape
Oil on canvas, 71.5x85cm
102 Giuseppe Zais
Landscape with Figures and Small Bridge
Oil on canvas, 46x60cm
103 Henry Fantin Latour
Sweet Peas, 1888 24×20.5 with
antique frame
104 Henry Fantin Latour
Roses Tremieres, aka
Hollyhocks
Oil on canvas, 28.5×23.25
105 Henri Matisse
Head of a Woman Oil on canvas, 25.5×19.25
106 J.B. LePrince
Rustic Cottages with Figures,
1700s
107 Jacobo Del Sallaio
Nativity
Tempera on
panel, 78x45cm
108 Jacopo Robusti, II
Tintoretto
Miraculous Catch, aka
Miraculous Drought of Fishes
Oil on canvas, 93x101cm
109 Jacopo Robusti, II
Tintoretto
The Wise Men at the Temple, aka Christ Among Doctors
Oil on canvas, 43x101cm
110 Jan Brueghel the Younger
Allegory of Venus at the Forge of Bulcan
Oil on panel, 16.5×28.38
111 Jan Brueghel the Younger
Allegory of Earth with Flora Surrounding Putti and Satyr
Oil on panel, 16.5×28.38
112 Jan Cossiers
Jesus Crucifies
Oil
113 Jan Greffier
Extensive Winter Landscape Skaters and Village
Oil on panel, 14×19
114 Jan Steen
Merry Making in a Dutch
Garden
Oil on panel, 25×18.5
115 Jan van Bylert
A Musician
Oil on canvas, 39×33
116 Leandro Bassano
Deposition
Oil on canvas, 52x34cm
117 Leandro Bassano
Interior of a Farmhouse
Oil on canvas, 97x132cm
118 Lippo Memmi
Altarpiece of Five Saints
Tempera on panel, 220x200cm
119 Luca Carlevaris
Piazza San Marino: Looking Toward the Procuratorate Oil on canvas, 63x37cm
120 Marcellus Koffermans
Glorification of the Virgin, 1559 Oil on panel, 48×48
121 Marco Ricci
Tempest
Oil on canvas, 100x114cm
122 Maurice Utrillo
La Maison Blanche
Oil on canvas, 25.63×23.5
123 Michele Marieschi
Landscape with Village
Oil on canvas, 73x97cm
124 Michele Marieschi
Imaginary Landscape
Oil on canvas, 73x97cm
125 Neri Di Bicca
Large Majesty
Tempera on panel, 190x117cm
126 Pablo Picasso
Head of a Woman, 1954 Oil on canvas, 65x54cm
127 Pablo Picasso
Fruit Dish, Bottle and Guitar,
1914 Oil on canvas, 92x73cm
128 Pablo Picasso
Reclining Woman
129 Pablo Veronese
The City of Venice Adoring the Christ Child
Oil on canvas, 39.75×55.75
130 Paul Cezanne
Landscape, Aix-en-Provence
Oil on canvas, 18.3×21.7
131 Paul Gauguin
Still Life with Idol
Oil on canvas, 18.25×15
132 Paul Gauguin
Fruits
133 Paule Gobillard
Jeune Femme Au Piano
Oil on canvas, 21.5×18
134 Paule Gobillard
Jeune Femme En Rouge
Oil on canvas, 22×18
135 Paule Gobillard
Paysage Du Midi
Oil on canvas, 15×18
136 Paule Gobillard
Panier de Poires
Oil on canvas, 15×18.25
137 Paule Gobillard
Cope de Fleurs
Oil on canvas, 15×18.25
138 Paule Gobillard
Jeune Femme a la Robe Rouge
Oil on canvas, 21.5×18.5
139 Paule Gobillard
Jeune Femme Au Chapeu
Oil on canvas, 21.75×18
140 Paule Gobillard
Lecture Au Jardin
Oil on canvas, 16×21.5
141 Paule Gobillard
Vase de Fleurs
Oil on canvas, 22×18
142 Paule Gobillard
La Visite
Oil on canvas, 19.5×24
143 Paule Gobillard
Vase de Fleurs
Oil on canvas, 16.25×13.25
144 Paule Gobillard
Nu Endormi
Oil on canvas, 21.5×25.5
145 Paule Gobillard
Vase de Fleurs
Oil on canvas, 14.25×12.5
146 Paule Gobillard
Vase de Fleurs
Oil on canvas, 15×13
147 Paule Gobillard
Nature Morte
Oil on canvas, 6×8
148 Paule Gobillard
Portrait de Petite Fille
Oil on canvas, 25.5×21
149 Paule Gobillard
Jeune Femme S’habillant
Oil on canvas, 26×21.5
150 Paule Gobillard
Jeune Femme Au Chignon
Oil on canvas, 29×23.75
151 Paule Gobillard
Jeune Femme a la Robe Rose
Oil on canvas, 32×25.5
152 Paule Gobillard
La Conversation
Oil on canvas, 25.5×32
153 Paule Gobillard
La Contre
Oil on canvas, 18×15
154 Paule Gobillard
Bord De Mer
Oil on canvas, 9.75×13.25
155 Paule Gobillard
Vue D’ Assise
Oil on canvas, 15×18
156 Paule Gobillard
Le Blesmil
Oil on canvas, 18×15
157 Paule Gobillard
Roses Tremieres Au Mesmil
Oil on canvas, 15×18
158 Paule Gobillard
Paysage du Midi
Oil on canvas, 15×18.25
159 Paule Gobillard
Paysage
Oil on canvas, 18×15
160 Paule Gobillard
Portrait de Femme A
L’eventuil
Oil on canvas, 18×13
161 Paule Gobillard
Femme a la Rose
Oil on canvas, 16.25×13.25
162 Paule Gobillard
Mme. Valery a Dinard
Oil on canvas, 16.25×13
163 Paule Gobillard
Bord De Mer
Oil on canvas, 13×16.5
164 Paule Gobillard
Clairs Matin Aux Bruyeres
Oil on canvas, 16.5×10.5
165 Paule Gobillard
Paysage
Oil on canvas, 10.75×14
166 Paule Gobillard
La Tonelle
Oil on canvas, 11×14
167 Paule Gobillard
Vase de Fleurs
Oil on canvas, 11.5×14
168 Paule Gobillard
Le Trois Pommes
Oil on canvas, 9.5×13
169 Paule Gobillard
An Salon
Oil on canvas, 36×23.5
170 Paule Gobillard
Nature Morte
Oil on canvas, 18×21.75
171 Paule Gobillard
Fleurs et Fruits
Oil on canvas
172 Paule Gobillard
La Tasse De The
Oil on canvas, 28.5×23.5
173 Paule Gobillard
Vase de Fleurs
Oil on canvas, 25.5×21
174 Paule Gobillard
Le Dernier Essayage
Oil on canvas, 39×38
175 Paule Gobillard
Jeune Femme Tricotant Pres d’Une Fenetre
Oil on canvas, 18×21.5
176 Paule Gobillard
Nu Se Coiffant
Oil on canvas, 24×19.5
177 Paule Gobillard
Femme Au Chapeau
Oil on canvas, 13×19.5
178 Paule Gobillard
“Paysage de Cagnes”
Oil on canvas, 15×18.5
179 Paule Gobillard
“Le Jardin Fleur”
Oil on canvas, 13.5×18
180 Paule Gobillard
“Le Liameau”
Oil on canvas, 13.5×18
181 Paule Gobillard
“Au Bord de la Mer”
Oil on canvas, 13×16.25
182 Paule Gobillard
“Panier de Fruits”
Oil on canvas, 19.5×25.5
183 Paule Gobillard
“Vase de Fleurs”
Oil on canvas, 25.5×21.5
184 Paule Gobillard
“Jeune Femme Tricotant Pres de la Fanetre”
Oil on canvas, 21.5×18
185 Pieter Brueghel the Younger
“The Adoration of Kings,” 1617 Oil on panel, 15.25×22.5
186 Peter Paul Rubens
“The Virgin and the Child,” aka The Cumberland Madonna
187 Peter van Schendel
“Boy with the Torch”
35×29.5
188 Piet Mondrian
Undetermined title, painting with yellow, white and blue
189 Piet Mondrian
“Eucalyptus”
Oil on canvas, 51x41cm
190 Pierre Auguste Renoir
Painting of undetermined title
191 Pierre Auguste Renoir
“Jeunes Filles au bord de L’eau,”
purchased for $475,000 from Hammer Galleries
Oil on canvas, 12.75×16.5cm
192 Pietro Longhi
“The Charlatan”
Oil on canvas, 62x51cm
193 Pietro Longhi
“The Fortuneteller”
Oil on canvas, 62x51cm
194 Pseudo-Pier Francesco Fiorentino
“Virgin with Child Blessing the Battistino”
Tempera on panel, 65x37cm
195 Raphael
“St. Catherine of Alexandria”
Tempera on panel
196 Rene Magritte
“La Lumiere des Coincidence,”
1958 10×12.5
197 Rosalba Carriera
“Half Figure of a Young
Woman”
Pastel on paper, 53x43cm
198 Sano di Pietro
“St. Catherine of Siena”
Tempera on panel, 50x33cm
199 Sano di Pietro
“St. Bernardino of Siena”
Tempera on panel, 50x33cm
200 Sebastiano Ricci
“Last Supper”
Oil on canvas
201 Sir Anthony van Dyke
“An Apostle (St. Simone?)”
Oil on canvas, 109x89cm
202 Titian
“Portrait of Giulio Romano”
Oil on canvas, 102x87cm
203 Unsigned
“St. Peter or Paul”
Oil on canvas, 35×25
204 Unknown
“Woman Sitting with a Flower on Lap beside a Sitting Dog”
205 Unknown
“Portrait of a Woman Holding
a Pencil”
206 Vincent Van Gogh
“Peasant Woman Winding
Bobbins” Watercolor, 13×16.5
READ MORE @ INQUIRER.NET
MANILA, Philippines - "We practically own everything in the Philippines-from electricity, telecommunications, airline, banking, beer and tobacco, newspaper publishing, television stations, shipping, oil and mining, hotels and beach resorts, down to coconut milling, small farms, real estate and insurance," said Imelda Marcos, talking to the Inquirer in 1998 while she disclosed her plan to file an intervention suit against the cronies of her husband.
Imelda said the Marcos family accumulated its wealth "without dipping into government coffers."
Former Senate President Jovito Salonga challenged Imelda's claim, saying that the Marcoses had started raiding the government coffers barely two years into the first term of President Ferdinand Marcos in 1965, with his wife using intelligence funds to finance her foreign trips as first lady and stashing part of the money in Swiss banks.
In his book "Presidential Plunder: The Quest for the Marcos Ill-gotten Wealth," Salonga enumerated the ways by which the Marcoses acquired and safeguarded ill-gotten wealth.
READ MORE @ news.asiaone.com
MANILA, Philippines—Authorities swooped down Friday on the Marcos Museum in Batac City, Ilocos Norte to confiscate eight paintings, including Michaelangelo’s Madonna and Child and Pablo Picasso’s Femme Couche VI, that the Sandiganbayan ordered seized, a radio report said.
Operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Presidential Commission on Good Governance (PCGG) raided the museum around 10 a.m., the report said, but failed to find the expensive paintings.
The Sandiganbayan last week ordered the seizure of the eight paintings it said are part of the Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth.
Subject to forfeiture are the following artworks:
- LaBaignade Au Grand Temps by Pierre Bonnard
- Madonna and Child by Michelangelo Buonarroti
- Vase of Red Chrysanthemums by Bernard Buffet
- Still Life with Idol by Paul Gauguin
- Portrait of the Marqueza de Sta. Cruz by Francisco de Goya
- L但ube by Joan Miro
- Femme Couche VI (Reclining Woman VI) by Pablo Picasso
- Jardin de Kew pres de la Serre 1892 by Camille Pissarro
However, after an hour of search inside the museum, no paintings were found except for the family portraits of the Marcoses.
The staff of Ilocos Norte second district Representative Imelda Marcos were present during the raid.
On Tuesday, the NBI and PCGG seized the painting collections of the Marcoses in their San Juan residence.
INQUIRER.net tried to contact the camp of the Marcoses but has not responded yet.
Read more: INQUIRER.NET
The paintings were recovered Tuesday from Marcos' old residence in San Juan city in metropolitan Manila, said the head of the agency tasked to recover wealth amassed by Marcos during his 20-year rule.
Andres Bautista, chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, said court sheriffs also tried to seize paintings from a condominium belonging to Marcos' widow, Imelda. He said the sheriffs were kept waiting outside for an hour, and when they entered they saw her crying and found only empty walls and hooks that once held paintings.
Bautista said sheriffs and National Bureau of Investigation agents also went to Imelda Marcos' congressional office and to the Marcos family's ancestral home in northern Ilocos Norte province. He said he is awaiting their reports.
The commission obtained a court order this week imposing a "writ of attachment" on the 156 paintings in connection with a civil suit seeking to recover the Marcos wealth, which has been estimated to be in the billions of dollars.
Bautista said the seizure of the paintings was necessary before they "disappear or are hidden away." The recovered items were taken to the central bank for safekeeping.
He said his agency will seek help from international auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's to determine the paintings' authenticity.
Bautista said the civil trial will continue until the court decides who should own the paintings.
"The position of the government is this is part of ill-gotten wealth and should be returned to the government and the people," he said, citing a Supreme Court decision. The 2003 ruling said the Marcoses' wealth in excess of their total legal income of around $304,000 from 1965 to 1986 was presumed to be ill-gotten.
Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in 1989 without admitting any wrongdoing during his presidency.
Bautista said earlier this year that Philippine authorities have recovered more than $4 billion of an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion amassed by the Marcoses. That includes $712 million from Marcos' secret Swiss bank accounts, he said.
READ MORE @ LEDGER-INQUIRER.COM
The Marcoses never really left home
by Raissa Robles
When the Marcoses fled Malacañang in 1986, many Filipinos heaved a sigh of relief, thinking they were gone for good.
Now 28 years later, the Marcoses are parked at the very doorstep of Malacañang, with the dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ only son and namesake being groomed to retake the Palace come 2016.
Ferdinand Jr. (Bongbong) is a senator eyeing the presidency; his sister Imelda Jr. (Imee) is governor of their northern stronghold; their mother Imelda is a congresswoman; and their late dictator-dad turned into a saintly-looking icon like the dead Pope that is miraculously preserved inside St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican.
Religious cults like the Alpha-Omega have sprung to await Marcos’ resurrection. As cult member Teresita Maglahus said in 1993: “We are waiting for a miracle in the Philippines, the new Jerusalem. It will be revealed to our countrymen and other nations that … President Marcos is God.”
How do you account for such a stunning reversal from ill fortune?
Simple.
They never really left.
Political roots intact
The 1986 People Power Revolution did chop down the Marcos political tree. But its intricate roots that spread far and wide across the state bureaucracy and Philippine society remained intact. All the Marcoses had to do was nurture the roots and wait for the tree to grow back.
In 1998, by Imee Marcos’ own reckoning, “we waited 12 years to be on the right side of the fence.” Right side meant a political alliance with then victorious President-elect Joseph Estrada, velvet seats in Congress for Imee and her mother, and a governorship for Bongbong.
An ecstatic Imee spilled the family’s secret to success: “Many professionals were appointed by my father. So you have this immense bedrock of Marcos appointees who keep moving up.”
Like secret stay-behind units, this vast army of professionals scattered in all sectors of society have defended the Marcoses and helped erase the dark legacy of their regime.
For various reasons, no post-Marcos administration made it a point to keep the memory of the atrocities and the greed alive and pass this on to the next generation. I remember early on then President Corazon Aquino’s board of censors chief Manoling Morato scolding the public and the media for discussing the Marcos excesses. “Let’s stop demonizing the Marcoses,” he said, after the dictator died in 1989.
Morato was probably following the age-old Filipino practice of not speaking ill of the dead.
I have been a Marcos watcher since 1981 when I unwittingly witnessed the paper “lifting” of martial law in Malacañang. This was courtesy of an invite from Ferdinand Marcos’ speechwriter Adrian Cristobal who had taken over the Philippine Education Company which published The Review magazine. I was its associate editor.
I did not know it then but that was part of my political awakening—to see up close the pomp and power of the dictatorship. Imelda Marcos delayed the speech but no one minded. When she entered Heroes’ Hall, the center parted like the Red Sea as she walked regally, towering above all, heavily made up and in a terno that made her look like a character in a play. She knew how to stage drama.
Later, I would cover her as the governor of Metro Manila Commission, then as congresswoman and an accused.
Looking back, I can see the various factors that helped the Marcoses stage their comeback.
First of all, few in the political opposition that replaced Ferdinand Marcos knew how to run a government. President Corazon Aquino had to rely heavily on the bureaucracy that Marcos had built up to institutionalize his tyranny. Enough key civil servants remained closet Marcos loyalists or were sympathetic or deeply grateful to the Marcos couple for acts of favor.
President Cory tried to “deMarcosify” the bureaucracy through a purge but the Senate pressured her to suspend this twice, according to Dr. Ledivina Cariño, a University of the Philippines College of Public Administration professor in her 1992 book, “Bureaucracy for Democracy: the Dynamics of Executive-Bureaucracy Interaction during Governmental Transitions.”
This is probably what enabled Mrs. Marcos to beat her corruption conviction.
In 1991, President Cory’s government was faced with a difficult dilemma. The Swiss Federal Court had given an ultimatum: If Manila did not take Mrs. Marcos to court by December 20, 1991, the freeze on all the Marcoses’ Swiss bank assets, including the already identified US$356 million, would be lifted. That meant the Marcoses could claim them all.
This was why Imelda Marcos was finally allowed to come home.
Former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr.—Mrs. Aquino’s second Interior and Local Governments Minister—told me the second factor that allowed Mrs. Marcos to manipulate the situation. The Aquino government stopped itself from implementing deeply needed reforms that could have rooted out the dictatorship because “we wanted to be the opposite of Marcos.”
When Marcos imposed Martial Law, he jailed his political enemies. When Imelda Marcos returned home on November 4, 1991, she was allowed to stage a dramatic homecoming.
Writing about that moment in “The Aquino Administration–Record & Legacy” published by the University of the Philippines Press in 1992, Mrs. Aquino’s executive secretary, Franklin Drilon (now the Senate President), said: “Mrs. Marcos was allowed to return with no restriction to the pomp and pageantry which accompanied it. Her personal security was ensured, and she was allowed to participate in the election.”
Goofy sound bites
Imelda’s return probably marks the start of the family’s slow but steady climb back to power. Reporters, both foreign and local, simply adored her because she gave such goofy sound bites.
By September 1995, as the Church and militant groups prepared to mount nationwide protests against the 27th anniversary of martial law, Mrs. Marcos defiantly said: “The martial law declaration on Sept. 21, 1972, was one of the best things that happened in Philippine history … to ensure peace for our country.”
Few recalled that this was the same woman who got a convicted murderer to win the presidency in 1965 by serenading voters and telling them—would someone as beautiful as I marry a murderer?
Off-camera, she tirelessly nurtured the network that she and her husband had built up over two decades of being in power. That network gave her the edge when she fought off hundreds of lawsuits and she was convicted on Sept. 24, 1993, for approving an “anomalous transaction” that caused the Light Rail Transit Authority, which she chaired, to lose the equivalent of US$4.8 million. The LRTA vice chair Jose Dans was also convicted for signing the contract on behalf of LRTA.
Convicted but never jailed
This transaction involved leasing out two train station terminals at below market rates to a private foundation that she herself put up and headed. Philippine General Hospital Foundation was supposed to raise funds for the state-owned Philippine General Hospital but its hospital director told me then in an interview that PGH never got a cent from PGH Foundation. Mrs. Marcos signed the contract with LRTA on behalf of the foundation even though she was also the LRTA chair.
In 1996, the Supreme Court found Mrs. Marcos “guilty beyond reasonable doubt,” sentenced her to 12 years in jail and fined her the equivalent of the anomalous contract. Dans was acquitted because the Court found “no conspiracy” between him and Mrs. Marcos.
Around the same time that the government of Fidel Ramos—the dictator’s second cousin—was prosecuting Mrs. Marcos in court, it was secretly negotiating a deal that only came to light in 1996 when former Solicitor General Frank Chavez asked the Supreme Court to stop it. The deal would have allowed the Marcoses to walk off with 25 percent of all their ill-gotten wealth—here and abroad. Tax-free. In addition, all pending criminal and civil cases against them would be dropped.
But that wasn’t all. Chavez presented a letter dated Jan. 24, 1995, from Mrs. Marcos’ lawyer to Presidential Commission on Good Government chair Magtanggol Gunigundo saying “it is further understood that $50 million will be taken from the top as approved by President Ramos and your
(Gunigundo’s) good self.”
“Where will the $50 million taken from the top go?” Chavez demanded to know as he asked to court to permanently bar all compromise deals with the Marcoses.
Just think. If the late lawyer Chavez had not won this case, the Marcoses would have walked off with at least US$89 million, or P3.9 billion (at P44 per dollar). That would have been their cut in the US$356 million loot the dictator and his wife stashed in Swiss banks—not for the Filipino people but for their three children. I have copies of Swiss documents to show this.
In addition, the government would never have known about the US$40 million Arelma account that the court recently awarded “with finality” to the government as part of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth.
Senator Bongbong Marcos told me during a foreign correspondents forum in 2011 that he was still after striking a deal: “We’ve been pursuing a compromise settlement since 1986. We will continue to do so.”
You can just imagine what he will do with the rest of his family’s cases if he became President.
Part of the Marcos propaganda being propagated on the Internet is that no Marcos has ever gone to jail for any crime. Therefore all the crimes alleged against them are untrue.
Mrs. Marcos was acquitted in 1990 over the antiracketeering case in New York for four reasons. First, Mr. Marcos who was the principal accused was never arraigned because he said he was “too ill” to stand trial.
Second, the Swiss bank documents that would have traced the money trail for the purchase of New York properties from Manila to Hong Kong to Switzerland to New York never came. Her lawyers had successfully blocked their release. Third, Mrs. Marcos’ lawyer Gerry Spence used the “I’m just a housewife” defense while the former First Lady put on an act before the jury. And fourth, the jurors felt Mrs. Marcos should be standing trial in Manila, not in New York.
If Twitter and Facebook had existed then, her trial would have had a different outcome.
Now let me go back to the LRTA case for which Mrs. Marcos was actually convicted. This illustrates how she has managed to escape convictions all these years.
Five years after her conviction by the Sandiganbayan over the LRTA anomaly, Ramos’ Solicitor General Romeo de la Cruz suddenly submitted a highly unusual request before the Supreme Court to reverse Mrs. Marcos’ conviction for lack of evidence.
I was greatly puzzled and shocked by seeing the chief government lawyer throw away a landmark case that the government had been trying to win all those years.
And so, I interviewed SolGen De la Cruz on the matter. He told me then: “Sandiganbayan erred. It should not have convicted Mrs. Marcos. It played blind to the evidence she presented. So we recommended to the Supreme Court…to acquit Mrs. Marcos.”
He also told me that he arrived at this on “purely legal grounds” and “without asking clearance form higher officials including President Ramos.”
This was even though his office was under the Office of the President and it was never involved in prosecuting the case before Sandiganbayan. The Office of the Ombudsman provided the prosecution lawyers.
I asked him how he got involved and he said it was because the Supreme Court had directed the SolGen, not the Ombudsman, to comment on Mrs. Marcos’ appeal for acquittal.
One of the boys
I asked him about his background and I learned that SolGen De la Cruz became a government lawyer in 1974 serving under Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza—Mrs. Marcos’ lead lawyer. De la Cruz slowly rose through the ranks before being appointed chief government lawyer by Ramos in February 1998—a nearly midnight appointment.
A disgusted human rights lawyer Rene Saguisag told me at that time, “Solicitor General Romeo de la Cruz’s flip-flop is a reflection of the new power situation. If, as we understand it, he is one of the boys of former Solicitor General and Justice Minister Estelito Mendoza, the snicker or wink factor will be there. That passes for administration of justice in our benighted country.”
The Supreme Court used Solgen De la Cruz’ stunning request for acquittal as one of the grounds to acquit Mrs. Marcos on Oct. 6, 1998, by a vote of 8-5-1.
“Thank you, Lord,” Mrs. Marcos said.
But former Senator Jovito Salonga had a different take on the verdict. He noted that five upheld Mrs. Marcos’ conviction: Chief Justice Andrews Narvasa, Justices Artemio Panganiban, Florenz Regaldao, Flerida Ruth Romero and Hilario Davide Jr.
Gerry Spence
But Salonga noted that seven of the eight justices who cleared Mrs. Marcos owed their appointments to senior judicial positions to Mr. Marcos or to Estelito Mendoza, her lead counsel.
I tried checking out Salonga’s statement and this is what I found. Four of the eight justices who had acquitted Mrs. Marcos once had her lawyer Estelito Mendoza as their boss.
Reynato Puno (now a retired Chief Justice) worked under Mendoza for nine years. Vicente Mendoza was Assistant SolGen under Mendoza from 1973 to 1980. Santiago Kapunan worked under Mendoza from 1972 to 1973. Fidel Purisima did not work under the SolGen but Mr Marcos appointed him a judge.
The two others who acquitted Mrs. Marcos were Antonio Martinez and Leonardo Quisumbing. I could not find any reference to Martinez but I personally knew Quisumbing who once worked at the Defense Department under Ramos. Jose Vitug abstained from voting.
If this was a jury in the United States, at the very least some of them could have been questioned for possible conflict of interest.
To this day, the Supreme Court is silent about its dark history during the dictatorship. When Renato Corona was Chief Justice, the court website just skipped any reference to the fact that it was the Supreme Court that legitimized the Marcos dictatorship. Today, if you click the icon that says “history,” nothing comes out.
Is the Supreme Court ashamed of its history? Or is it still being rewritten?
As my fellow journalist husband Alan wrote, “It is a truism that Filipinos are a forgiving people. But how will they ever forgive the crimes of the Marcoses? They cannot even seem to remember them.”
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Ronald Ian Laing (pronounced Lane) was born in Manila on June 19, 1915. He was detained with his mother, Mercedes, a Spanish citizen, and brother Eric at the Sto. Tomas Interment Camp during World War II. Listed as a British POW, Laing went to San Francisco after Liberation and was mentored by Eddie Cavagnero, florist to Hollywood stars, who eventually became his long-time partner.
When he returned to Manila in 1957, Laing set up his famous Ronnie’s Flower Shop on A. Mabini in Ermita in 1957. By the late ’60s, he had become the style dictator of the city’s American ladies and Manila’s elite. All parties, weddings and home interiors had to be done by him. Corsages and gentlemen’s lapel carnations had to be ordered from Ronnie’s, including funeral wreaths, with his trademark of imported gold stickers spelling out the name of the deceased.
For his services to the former First Lady, then President Marcos granted Ronald Ian Laing Filipino citizenship on June 11, 1978.
Manila’s style maven shared a home with Cavagnero on Mango Avenue, Sta. Mesa, Manila. The house was built on a sprawling lot with apartments built at the back for Laing’s employees. It was in his home where he hosted intimate but casual dinners for his closest friends. On these occasions, he would buy plain white plates and have them sent to Hong Kong to be hand-painted with designs that matched the tablecloth or the theme of his party. None of the preparations was ostentatious; everything was done in understated elegance. Before they became fashionable, sinamay, driftwood, bamboo, ginger flowers, large gabi leaves and other local materials found their way into Laing’s designs.
His parties were never catered; all the dishes were prepared in his kitchen. Imelda Marcos and her Blue Ladies attended Laing’s bigger parties and so did the creme de la creme of Manila.
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