Ferdinand Marcos

A lawyer, a member of the Philippine

House of Representatives (1949-1959)
and a member of the Philippine Senate
(1959-1965), Ferdinand Marcos became
the president of the Philippines in 1966,
a post he held until 1986, when his
people rose against his dictatorial rule
and he fled.
 The Marcoses of the Philippines are a useful example
of a political couple that failed the "net worth test." A
financial analysis based on the Marcos's income tax
returns for the financial years 1966 to 1985 reveal the
following:
Reportable income P 16,408,442 (approx. US$
2,414,484.91)
Official salaries P 2,627,581
Legal Practice P 11,109,836
Farm Income P 149,700
Others P 2,521,325
 Although Ferdinand Marcos was barred by law from
practising his law profession during his entire 20 years
as President, he claimed that his legal fees
represented "receivables from prior years". When
Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos became the First Couple
in 1965, their net worth was only Pesos ("P") 120,000,
i.e. US$7,000. When they were thrown out of the
Philippines in 1986, their estimated assets amounted
to more than $5 billion. Indeed, the Swiss accounts of
the Marcoses, which were frozen in 1986, amounted to
approximately US$357 million, such a sum far
exceeding the Marcoses legitimate increase in net
worth.
 The District Court of Hawaii finds that Marcos
was responsible for executions,
disappearances and torture during his rule and
awards nearly US$2 billion in damages to
thousands of surviving victims. The victims
later agree to a US$150 million settlement, but
a court in the Philippines blocks payment in
1999.
 In July the Philippine Supreme Court rules that
the US$624 million portion of the Marcos
fortune discovered in Swiss bank accounts
must be handed over to the Philippine
Government. The money is to be used to buy
land for distribution to poor farmers. The
Marcos family immediately appeal against the
judgement.
 On25 March the international anticorruption
organization Transparency International (TI)
places Marcos at second on a list of the world's
most corrupt political leaders of the past two
decades, surpassed only by former Indonesian
PresidentSuharto.
According to TI, Marcos is alleged to have
embezzled between US$5 billion and US$10
billion from the Philippines.
 Meanwhile, a judge in Hawaii orders that
US$40 million held by a finance company set
up by Marcos be used to start paying the
victims of his regime who were awarded
damages in 1994. The finance company
appeals the ruling.
 InJanuary a US District Court judge approves the
distribution of compensation to about 7,500 victims of
the Marcos regime. Each claimant receives about
US$1000. The money is sourced from a US$10 million
settlement against the holders of land in Texas and
Colorado bought with Marcos funds.
The same judge also finds Imelda Marcos and
Ferdinand Marcos Jr in contempt for violating a court
order requiring them to provide information about the
assets of the Marcos estate. They are ordered to pay a
fine of US$356.6 million, with the money to be
distributed to the victims of the regime.
 Marcos might not be one of the all-time killers
but he is certainly one of the biggest thieves in
the history of the planet. Estimates of his ill-
gotten gains range from US$3 billion to US$35
billion. Some suggest that the true amount is
over US$100 billion, perhaps even trillions of
dollars.
 While these latter sums may he fanciful, the
legacy of the Marcos dictatorship is all too real
- an economy struggling just to pay the
interest on its foreign debt and a seriously
compromised democracy seemingly unable to
shake off entrenched corruption. Witness the
debacle of the Estrada presidency. It took
Marcos 20 years to pillage and wreck the
Philippines. Unfortunately it may take far
longer for the damage to be undone.