Unexplained wealth of the Marcos family

Estimates of the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family vary, with most sources accepting a figure of about US$5 billion–10 billion for wealth acquired in the last years of the Marcos administration, but with rough extreme estimates of wealth acquired since the 1950s going as high as US$30 billion. Bosworth's source, Dr. Bernardo Villegas of the Philippine think tank the Center for Research and Communication (CRC), noted that the rough 10 billion figure ultimately cited by Bosworth was already well below the conservative estimate which can be derived from an analysis of the Philippines' import and export figures. Villegas noted that his analysis was based on figures tabulated by the CRC from 1977 to 1985, and added that the hidden wealth was self-evident, saying "kitang kita ang ebidensya" ("the evidence is very visible"). — a record they are still holding in 2024. However, Dr. Jesus Estanislao, another noted economist from the Center for Research and Communication, pointed out that this figure reflected amounts taken out of the country in the years immediately prior to the ouster of the Marcos administration, and that there was no way to accurately estimate the wealth acquired by the Marcoses since the 1950s when he was in the legislature, and the mid-1960s when he became president. Estanislao suggested that the figure could be closer to $30 billion. == Means of acquisition ==

Among the sources of the Marcos wealth are alleged to be diverted foreign economic aid, US Government military aid (including huge discretionary funds at Marcos disposal as a "reward" for sending some Filipino troops to Vietnam) and kickbacks from public works contracts over a two-decade-long rule. == Agency in charge of recovery ==

Shortly after Marcos was removed through the 1986 People Power revolution, It was also tasked with investigating other cases of graft and corruption; and instituting of corruption prevention measures. Since then, assets recovered from the Marcoses by the PCGG has funded more than 80 percent of the Philippines' budget for agrarian reform. == Overseas real estate properties ==

, one of four Manhattan buildings purchased by the Marcoses in the early 1980s.|right Some of the most tangible examples of the unexplained wealth of the Marcos family are the various overseas real estate properties that the Marcoses acquired while they were in power. of these properties are the Marcoses' multi-million dollar real estate investments in the United States, particularly Imelda's purchases of buildings and real estate in New York, the estates purchased in New Jersey for the use of the Marcos children, Jose Yao Campos's investments in Seattle, various properties in Hawaii including the Makiki Heights estate where they lived during their exile, and their ownership of the California Overseas Bank in Los Angeles. According to Ricardo Manapat's book Some Are Smarter Than Others, which was one of the earliest to document details of the Marcos wealth, lesser known properties include gold and diamond investments in South Africa, banks and hotels in Israel, and various land-holdings in Austria, the United Kingdom and Italy. == Marcos mansions in the Philippines ==

Aside from the overseas properties, there are fifty-or-so "Marcos mansions" acquired by the Marcos family within the Philippines itself. Locations of these "Marcos mansions" include properties in Philippines' "Summer Capital" of Baguio, and throughout the Greater Manila Area and its outskirts. Some of these properties are titled in the name of Marcos family members, but others are titled in the name of identified "Marcos cronies" while being reserved for the use of the Marcos family. Many of the Marcos mansions were sequestered by the Philippine government when the Marcoses were expelled from the country as a result of the 1986 EDSA Revolution. ==The Marcos jewels ==

Also sequestered by the PCGG in 1986 were three sets of Imelda Marcos's jewelry, which have collectively come to be known as the "Marcos jewels" or "Imelda jewels." Individually, the three collections of jewels sequestered by the PCGG have come to be called the "Hawaii collection", the "Malacañang collection", and the "Roumeliotes collection", respectively. The "Hawaii collection" refers to a group of jewels seized by the US Bureau of Customs from the Marcoses when went into exile in Hawaii in 1986. The "Malacañang collection" refers to a group of jewels that were discovered in the Presidential Palace after the Marcoses fled the Philippines. The "Roumeliotes collection" refers to a group of jewels that were confiscated from Demetriou Roumeliotes—said to have been a close associate of Imelda—after he was caught trying to smuggle them out of the Philippines at Manila International Airport. In February 2016, the government of the Philippines announced that the three collections had been appraised as valuing , and that they would eventually be auctioned off after having been kept unsold by the government for three decades. == Overseas bank accounts ==

Much of the Marcos wealth that the PCGG has been trying to recover is kept in various overseas bank accounts, which the PCGG was able to identify based on documents left by the Marcoses in Malacañang in February 1986. The William Saunders and Jane Ryan accounts The most famous of these overseas accounts of the Marcoses are the four so-called William Saunders and Jane Ryan accounts, opened with Credit Suisse in Zürich in March 1968. Marcos famously used the alias "William Saunders" for the name of the account, while Imelda Marcos choose the alias "Jane Ryan." Four checks, totaling US$950,000.00 were used to make the initial deposit. These were later moved into other accounts under various dummy foundations, but when records of them were discovered by the new Philippine government after the 1986 EDSA revolution, the Swiss Federal Council froze them. In 1997, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court established the funds to have been "of criminal provenance" and permitted their transfer to an escrow account in Manila, pending a ruling from a Philippine court that came in the form of a confiscation ruling by the Philippine Supreme court on July 15, 2003. Switzerland finally released a total of $683 million in Marcos funds to the Philippines Treasury in 2004. The Arelma account Aside from the Saunders account, another well known overseas account of the Marcoses is known as the Arelma account, opened in 1972 at the brokerage firm of Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. in New York under the name of the Arelma Foundation, a Panamanian corporation. The initial deposit had been for only $2 million in 1972, but the account had grown to approximately $35 million by 2000, and $42 million by 2014. Compromise deal accounts Among the early successes of the PCGG were achieved through compromise deals with Imelda Marcos or various Marcos cronies. Banks involved included Japan's Sanwa Bank, and in the United States, Redwood Bank and California Overseas Bank. == Status of recovery efforts ==

As the Marcos family fled to Hawaii after the EDSA Revolution, the opposition organized themselves and President Aquino released Executive Order 1 on February 28, 1986, which was the creation of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), with Jovito Salonga as its chair. The task of the PCGG was to recover all assets and moneys amassed by the Marcoses, relatives, and cronies. The first attempt to recover was organized by Salonga, Sedfrey Ordoñez, Charlie Avila, and General Jose Almonte, and was called Operation Big Bird. Armed with documents recovered in Manila after the revolution, the committee worked with the European banking systems and Swiss government to recover the money hidden at Swiss banks. Operations Big Bird as formulated by Gen. Almonte was to use Filipino bankers in Europe to double-cross the Marcoses in issuing a special power of attorney (SPA) to move their money from possible investigation by Philippine, and European governments. While $7 billion of accounts were identified, this mission was only successful in transferring $356 million from Marcos' connected accounts to the Philippine government accounts. Sensing the double-cross, the Marcos withdrew their SPA, and the Swiss Attorney-General ordered the freezing of the rest of the accounts until the Philippine government can prove that these accounts belong to the Filipino people. The recovered money ballooned to $570 million by 1998, when it was transferred from Switzerland to a Philippine National Bank escrow account. In 2003 the Philippine Supreme Court released a decision with finality that the said money was considered public fund. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in accordance to the law declared that the said money was to be used for the agricultural sector and agrarian reform. However, as 2004 elections were round the corner, the said funds were allegedly used for funding the campaign of Arroyo and her party-mates and allies; this was to become known as the Fertilizer Fund scam. By 2019, the PCGG had recovered more than ₱171 billion of ill-gotten wealth from the Marcoses and their cronies since their creation in 1986; some of this came from money sequestered by the PCGG or surrendered under various compromise agreements, and some of it came from the sale of various surrendered or sequestered properties. ==Convictions==

Philippine Supreme Court and Sandiganbayan decisions as well as rulings by courts abroad confirm the plunder of Ferdinand Marcos, his family, and cronies. In 2003, the Supreme Court ordered the transfer to the Philippine government of the Marcoses' Swiss bank accounts worth $658 million. The Supreme Court also affirmed in 2012 the decision of the Sandiganbayan to forfeit $3.3 million assets and funds previously held by Arelma, Inc., one of Ferdinand Marcos's dummy companies. In 2021, the Sandiganbayan ordered the return of stolen funds worth ₱96 million and $5.4 million plus interest. According to the court decision, the funds were received from Marcos and his cronies from 1974 to 1986 and held by Royal Traders Holding Co. In 2024, the Supreme Court ruled as ill-gotten a 57.68-hectare property in Paoay, Ilocos Norte, and ordered the return of the property to the state. Convictions outside the Philippines Courts abroad have issued separate rulings on the stolen wealth of the Marcoses. In 1986, US courts ruled against the Marcoses relating to ill-gotten assets in New York and New Jersey. In 1990, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court convicted the Marcoses of using Swiss bank accounts to hide stolen wealth worth $356 million during the dictator's rule. ==Acquittal==

• On September 21, 2018, the Supreme Court affirmed the 2008 ruling of the Court of Appeals that acquitted Imelda over her dollar salting case in which she allegedly stole millions of dollars in Swiss accounts. She was acquitted from 32 counts of dollar salting in 2008. • On June 27, 2023, the Sandiganbayan acquitted Ferdinand Marcos, his wife Imelda Marcos, and several of their associates on their ill-gotten wealth case due to the failure of prosecution "to prove its allegations by preponderance of evidence." • As of February 2025, nine court cases on the Marcoses' stolen wealth were dismissed during the presidency of Bongbong Marcos. == Disinformation ==

Studies on disinformation state that the denial of the Marcos kleptocracy is a common theme of disinformation campaigns and "networked propaganda". False claims about the source of Marcos stolen wealth have circulated, including conspiracy theories about the Tallano gold and the Yamashita treasure. One pervasive false claim states that Imelda Marcos had "won every corruption case" against her. President Rodrigo Duterte had also made unsubstantiated claims that the Marcos family planned to give away their wealth, without mentioning the Marcoses' corruption cases. Sources of the false claims include social media influencers, Facebook pages, and YouTube channels, as well as Marcos family members and their cronies. == See also ==