PCGG to give preliminary findings on Imee Marcos offshore trust in 2 weeks

Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Presidential Commission on Good Government will give its preliminary findings on the alleged offshore trust of Ilocos Norte Representative Imee Marcos and her three sons in the British Virgin Islands in two weeks’ time.

Depending on the findings, the PCGG will assess whether to pursue the discovery in line with its mandate to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, his family and cronies.

PCGG Commissioners Ma. Ngina Teresa Chan-Gonzaga and Vicente Gengos Jr. will head the team that will look into the lead uncovered by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism as part of a 15-month global media investigation into thousands of secret offshore companies or trusts and their beneficiaries.

Weeks before the PCIJ news report came out, the PCGG was given copies of documents showing Imee Marcos and her sons to be beneficiaries of Sintra Trust that was formed in June 2002 in the BVI.

The PCIJ linked Imee Marcos to Sintra Trust and two other offshore companies, all of which were not listed in the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth she filed as a congressman and governor.

“They (PCGG investigators) were given two weeks to get additional information and to submit preliminary findings,” PCGG Chairperson Andres Bautista said in an interview Monday.

“We’re looking at involving other government agencies,” added the former law dean of the Far East University (FEU), mentioning the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

Nearly three decades since the agency was created to hunt wealth Marcos illegally amassed during his 20-year regime, the PCGG continues to pursue leads such as that provided in the PCIJ report, of suspected hidden Marcos assets abroad.