Contact Details

Rm. N-411, House of Representatives, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
+63 2 931 5497, +63 2 931 5001 local 7370

Press Statements

The cat is out of the bag: President Duterte wants the Congress to grant the Marcoses immunity from criminal prosecution in exchange for the return of part of the Marcos loot.

This is the hitherto hidden agenda why the President has been urging the Congress to authorize him to negotiate for the recovery of the Marcos hidden wealth despite his continuing authority under President Corazon Aquino’s Executive Order No. 1 which created the Presidential Commission on Good Government to assist the President of the Republic in retrieving the Marcos hoard.

Press Statements

President Rodrigo Duterte does not need any new law or authority from the Congress to negotiate for the return of any or all the hidden wealth of the Marcoses.

The President of the Republic has the continuing principal authority under existing law to recover the Marcos ill-gotten hoard with the assistance of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).

The PCGG, which was created by the late President Corazon Aquino under Executive Order No. 1 on February 28, 1986, is “charged with the task of assisting the President” in “the recovery of all ill-gotten wealth accumulated by former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, his immediate family, relatives, subordinates and close associates, whether located in the Philippines or abroad”.

Press Statements

There is need for a categorical statement from the Marcos heirs confirming President Duterte’s report that the Marcoses are willing to surrender a part of the Marcos’ ill-gotten hoard.

The confirmatory statement must include the following:

  1. The specification of the denominations of the amounts and identification of the items to be returned;

  2. The persons or parties in possession of the hidden wealth to be conveyed to the government;

  3. The respective locations of the amounts and items to be surrendered;

  4. Estimated amount of what is earmarked to be returned;

  5. Time frame for the turnover;

  6. The duly authorized representative of the Marcos family; and

  7. Any conditionality for the voluntary partial surrender.

 

EDCEL C. LAGMAN

Press Statements

The adherence to the rule of law of President Rodrigo Duterte or his partiality to the rule of the gun will be tested and confirmed by his decision to create or not an independent fact-finding commission of retired jurists to investigate the unmitigated incidents of violence and deaths connected with the administration’s war on illegal drugs.

The President’s refusal or failure to form the fact-finding commission is a virtual admission of his approval of the summary killings with collateral damage even to innocent children and his order to shoot human rights advocates who protest the extra-judicial executions of drug suspects.

Press Statements

I again urge President Rodrigo Duterte to create immediately an independent fact-finding commission to thoroughly and impartially investigate the escalating summary killings related to the administration’s campaign against the drug menace.

The commission should be composed of retired justices of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals of proven probity.

Police authorities cannot be entrusted with the investigation because police officers and personnel are involved, while the leadership of the Department of Justice is a partisan ally of the President.