(Research) Marcos Loot: How much wealth was plundered from the nation?

MARCOS LOOT: HOW MUCH WEALTH WAS PLUNDERED FROM THE NATION?

Andrew A. Estacio

ENGLISH 2 B-1R

Estacio 1 Thesis Statement: The Philippines has been experiencing economic crises due to accumulated debts which resulted from Marcos’ abuse of power to plunder wealth.

I. Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law not only protected the wealth he acquired but also accelerated the amassing of more power and wealth; cronyism is one of the fundamental schemes Marcos used in order to plunder successfully.

II. Marcos’ loot brought economic dilemmas: most of the public wealth is exploited for personal enrichment; furthermore, his government accumulated immense amounts of debts that are still problematized until now.

III. Marcos demanded massive amounts of international assistance for the implementation of his ambitious programs which is unsystematic and a potential problem towards economic downfall.

The paradox is that the country, having been developed, still has to recompense other countries which is supposedly not happening. Marcos’ government portrayed development process as dependence to other countries.

IV. Marcos only gave the country an elusive ambiance of progress due to his pretentious projects abetted by multi-million dollar loans, and as a consequence, his administration bequeathed national crises for it has to pay debts more than what Marcos demanded for.

Estacio 2 INTRODUCTION

With all the countless and unbelievable political conspiracies, the Marcos administration is seen as one of the most notorious and controversial governments in the Philippine history. In his regime, the nation purportedly experienced its extreme ups – economic upsurge and establishment of greater development projects. Yet during this era, political power was exploited in trickery schemes in order to plunder the public wealth. This crime has resulted detrimental effects to the governmental, judicial and societal conditions of the country. But of all aspects that have been affected by Marcos’ iniquity, the economy is greatly torn down. Until now, this dilemma is being felt. The Philippines has been experiencing economic crises due to accumulated debts which resulted from Marcos’ abuse of power to plunder wealth. This consequence of his administration is speculated as a potential root of today’s endless poverty, budget deficiency, and marginalization of different sectors.

BODY The face of corruption Plunder manifests the culture of corruption that is inevitable in every highest government body. According to Huntington (1968), corruption is seen on the behavior of public officials who go against accepted norms for the purpose of serving one’s private ends; meanwhile, Andreski (1968) argues that it is the abuse of power that is defiant of law, solely done for private gain (cf.

Coronel, 1998). Plunder, an example of corruption, is not only limited to stashing away the money of the public wealth. Corruption encircles a system in order for it to work. As for the case of the Marcos’ loot, it involves political strategies: cronyism, patronage, the abuse of political office, and the use of government and state power. Manapat (1991) asserted that these are “the defining characteristics of mainstream Philippine Political institutions.”

Estacio 3 Cronyism is one of the building blocks of Marcos’ plunder. Without his connection with his hired experts, friends, and technocrats, his corruption system would not work. Corruption spreads from the mastermind down to his subordinates, all because of influence and selfish desires.

Alatas (1991) explains this phenomenon through the concept of Metastatic Corruption wherein the urge of corruption spreads to the vital centers of government administration. Public officials are attracted to corruption when it comes to dealing with public aids (cf. Coronel, 1998).

Aquino (1987) argues that corruption in the Third World countries roots from the culture of valuing friends and family ties. Giving these relatives boons and benefits are considered manifestation of this kind of behavior. In fact, relationships in traditional communities basically observe “kinship patterns and the hierarchy of status roles”. Through kinship, Marcos was able to establish his technocratic and authoritarian government together with his cronies.

The political reign before Martial Law

A World War II soldier, congressman, and a senator, Ferdinand “Edralin” Marcos was elected president in 1965, having all of these influential records. Some people have been claiming that his administration is, by far, the most effective and successful in the history because during the early years of his presidency, Marcos had imposed many development projects.

These include construction of public works which includes 16,000 kilometers of feeder roads, some 30,000 lineal meters of permanent bridges, a generator with an electric power capacity of million kilowatts, water services to eight regions and 38 localities. Rumor has it that during Marcos’ time, there were only few numbers of street crimes, peso-dollar currency was almost the same, the international world was investing in our country and the government established grandiose infrastructures like hotels, casinos, and malls. These developments had given an impression of progress in the country. Moreover, parts of his plans are the renewal of the Judiciary, the national defense posture and the fight against smuggling, criminality, and graft and corruption in the government (Angeles, 2005).

Estacio 4 Marcos, as cited by Manapat (1991), told the Life Magazine in his 1965 Political Campaign:

The first and most essential thing is to stop corruption in government, especially in customs and tax collections. They’re bleeding this country to death…once the tremendous powers of the president are properly applied, this country can start up very quickly. Once the government collects all its revenues, we will have enough funds for development and progress.

Yet behind all of his ambitious projects and promises, his statement “stop corruption in government” is seen paradoxical. Marcos’ early years in the government is full of clandestine stench.

In fact, Marcos had already used his congressional position to gain his ill-gotten wealth.

The congressman legitimized a law, charging a fee of $5000 from every businessman who wanted an import license in the early 1960’s. Import license was a need for the importation of goods. This black market scheme made Marcos a millionaire in a short period of time (Manapat, 1991).

In addition to that, the PCGG revealed that Marcos already amassed his fortunes during the early years of his presidency. With just a net worth of P30,000 in 1966, came a sudden increase up to millions of dollars for illicitly opening four pseudo Swiss bank accounts entitled to “William Saunders” for Ferdinand Marcos and “Jane Ryan” for Imelda Marcos in 1968. The third and fourth checking accounts, under Marcos’ name, were investment accounts. The four Swiss accounts’ initial deposits amounted to US $950,000 (Aquino, 1987).

Back then, there were a lot of suspicions regarding the behavior of the Marcoses, especially Imelda Marcos’ extravagance. She received $300,000 worth diamond ring from Ferdinand Marcos, and after giving birth to their first child, another diamond ring was given to Imelda (Dunne, 1986). She had savored all the wealth of his husband clearly seen on her ostentatious behavior. It was assumed that Marcos was already independently wealthy having all the utmost wealth which was left unexplained (Aquino, 1987).

Estacio 5 Martial Law: the beginning of the end

Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law rule on September 21, 1972, because of riots and tumultuous demonstrations. Marcos wrote in his book Notes on the New Society of the Philippines, “…martial law in the Philippines takes on a unique character: from the untenable strategy of protecting or restoring the status quo to a militant, constitutional, and legal strategy for creating and building, from the ashes of the old, a new society.”

However, the “new society” Marcos wanted is pretentious and is not actually aligned with his real purpose of the new government. Canoy (1981) argues that the declaration of Martial Law is a counterfeit reform. It is the takeover of the Philippine government under the false belief that the action is for peace and order yet it has been the most persistent form of repressive rule, including injustice and human rights violation.

The motivation that drove Marcos to pursue the ‘authoritarian government system’ is rooted from self-serving reasons. As per the common contemplation on Marcos’ ends, the perpetuation of power was his desire and his plan of action was by way of legitimizing decrees unsanctioned by the constitution: fabricating reforms that had not been subjected to consultation and incompliance of the 1972 constitutional convention. These portray a tell-tale of his authoritarianism (Canoy, 1980, 1981, 1984).

Contrary to some views, the Martial Law government actually centers not on development plans, but on business and entrepreneurial ventures (Halliday, 1979 cf. Aquino, 1987; Tadem, 2013). That is why ambitious economic programs were all flourished – huge investments in public works and highways, buildings, hotels, power plants, equipment, infrastructures, and other ‘pretentious programs’ (Aquino, 1987). Embarking on this programs paved way opportunities for enriching private ends. Marcos would benefit from funds used and incomes coming from these projects.

Estacio 6 Aquino (1987) argues that Martial Law perpetuated and increased the looting of wealth, making the economic system reigned of crony capitalism and Western-trained technocracy.

Because Martial Law gave Marcos immense political power, it was easy for him to do his corruption system. Given the constitution he legitimized, Marcos had the power to accumulate and control the public wealth together with his cronies.

The deceitful strategy of Marcos’ plunder

Brillantes (1987) said (cf. Aquino, 1987), “In monetary terms, the scale of Marcos’ plunder ranges from $5 to $10 billion and this is only the portion that can be documented.” More evidences are unraveled by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and some estimates reveal that the plunder amounts up to $30 billion.

Jovito R. Salonga and the PCGG revealed the unbelievable dynamics of the Marcos’ plunder: granting cronies enormous loans and the jurisdiction over monopolies, direct acquisition of public wealth and taking over private industries, legitimizing laws for opportunity of looting, using bogus partnerships for money laundering, stashing away foreign aid and other forms of assistance, and illegal depositing of money with altered information (Jovito, 2000).

Basically, the lending hands of cronies were behind all of these schemes. Marcos was able to contact even foreign technocrats to hide his ill-gotten wealth in international havens, the Swiss bank accounts for example. Moreover, his cronies were his assets to maintain outright control over monopolies, sufficing him more money. Aquino (1998) reveals the taking over of private enterprises by Marcos’ right hands, his cronies: sugar went onto Roberto Benedicto’s hands, a college fraternity brother of Marcos; oil was controlled by Geronimo Velasco, coconuts were monopolized by major cronies Juan Ponce Enrile, Minister of National Defense, and Eduardo Cojuanco. Furthermore, media was taken over by Benedicto and Benjamin Romualdez, Imelda’s brother; Philippine Air Lines and the Government Service Insurance System

Estacio 7 were controlled by Roman Cruz Jr; Casino gambling was terrorized by another Imelda bother, Alfredo; Lucio Tan operated Asia Brewery.

Marcos and his wife, Imelda, were not only those who benefited from the ill-gotten wealth. It is clear that many people were involved in the evil circle. Therefore, corruption metastasized or spread to the rest of the governing body. The Marcos administration basically centered on the abuse of political supremacy for lavish gains, given the extravagance of Imelda Marcos and the cronyism system of the president (Manapat, 1991).

Aftermath: Implications of his plunder on the current economic status

The downfall of the Marcos era is a tell-tale of governmental failure of developing the country. People had done protest actions and revolutions in order to sweep away the repressive dictator who centered not on the genuine development of the economy but he used an illusion of progress by way of his ambitious economic programs. At the same time, he stashed away the public wealth.

The Marcos government used immense amount of foreign loans and massive U.S. assistance to support his ambitious projects which is a failed strategy of developing the economy. Yet, he exploited these resources and it provided him opportunities to plunder. By this means, kickbacks, money laundering, cronyism, and other deceitful strategies come forth.

With these debts, Marcos left the Philippine economy with billions of liabilities to other countries. In fact, Corazon Aquino’s administration had faced $28 billion debt from other countries. In addition to that, the country had already spent $3.5 billion annually in 1980s for the payment of debt (Boyce, 1993).

His governmental failure brought a 42% poverty level (World Bank, 1980; cf. Celoza, 1997) and as time went by, 64% of the national population had remained poorest of the poor (Celoza, 1997).

Estacio 8 The detrimental effects of Marcos’ corruption are being felt up to the present. As per the 2012 statistics, the country’s foreign debt increased from $1B to more than $25B in his 20 yearadministration. One-third of all that debt was manipulated and had been amassed by him and his cronies as estimated by the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC). The country is liable of paying all the debts until 2025 (Nery, 2013).

The government and human rights institutions face the job of recovering all wealth that Marcos stashed away. By far, the first successful recovery goes to the $500 million retrieval done by the Swiss authorities (Aquino, 1999). However, due to many constraints – complexity of searching for the hidden wealth, processing cases in the court, and time limitations – some of Marcos’ plundered wealth have not yet been recovered (Caranze, 2001).

CONCLUSION

Marcos’ plunder portrays that once a corruption has been done, its effect will always perpetuate. Some are blinded with the bright sides of his deeds, but behind these good fragrances come forth the stench and deceits that cause economic degradation.

Unfortunately, this degradation has not ended yet. The malevolent spirit of a dictator still haunts the development of this country that seems still chained under ‘repressive rule’ despite the existence of democracy.

The irony is that Marcos’ government imposed developmental actions for the country; however, it is seen that these actions were not absolutely effectual for people have never felt “development” with economic crises, particularly serious amounts of liabilities, that these socalled development projects handed down. Furthermore, people are not able to benefit from the services of the government because opposite happens – the government is the one that benefits from the people; and in Marcos’ context, it is by way of plunder.

The Marcos administration manifests the culture of political patronage. His desire is about maintaining his power, and for it to be done, he exploits people and rewards them a lot of

Estacio 9 advantages. This culture reinforces the urge of dominion and superiority over the society. With this, there comes forth oppression. Hence, democracy will remain invisible.

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