The Philippines said yesterday it would auction off two properties once owned by the late Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos for at least 315.8 million pesos (US$7.3 million).
Prime real estate in a Manila suburb and the northern mountain resort city of Baguio will be sold through public bidding on April 24, said a government agency set up to recover the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos and his cronies.
The two properties, totalling 7,913m2, were surrendered to the government by Marcos croney Jose Yao Campos in 1986 after a popular revolt toppled Marcos that year.
“We are confident that ... the strategic location of the properties [would] attract more bidders, generating higher value,” said Roger Amurao, commissioner from the Presidential Commission on Good Government.
The Manila property is located opposite a major leisure and casino project, while the one in Baguio is situated near popular tourist attractions, the commission said.
Marcos ruled the country from 1965 to 1986, much of this time as a dictator. His family and their allies are accused of stealing billions of US dollars in state funds.
While Marcos and his family fled abroad after his downfall, some of his key allies surrendered assets they were holding for the ex-president as part of settlement deals with government.
The Presidential Commission on Good Government aims to use the recovered funds for a land reform program.
The commission said that 93.4 billion pesos had so been recovered. The agency hopes to claw back 405.7 million pesos this year.
However, the commission has long complained that the lack of a paper trail and delaying tactics employed by lawyers for the Marcos estate prevented it from recovering more.
Although Marcos died in exile in 1989, his family has since returned to the Philippines. His widow, Imelda Marcos, and their son, also named Ferdinand, were elected to parliament in 2010.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
RSS