Keeping Wealth in Manila a New Task for Crony Watchers

Now that Ferdinand E. Marcos is gone, Filipinos are watching alertly to see what his closest friends are doing. In particular, their new leaders have asked them to guard against the cronies, as Marcos’ friends are commonly called, spiriting public wealth out of the country.

On Wednesday, a Manila traffic policeman netted a big prize. Stopping a pickup truck, he found that it contained 13 crates packed with crisp new peso notes.

According to Brig. Gen. Narciso Cabrera, superintendent of Manila’s western police district, the truck was registered to the Office of the President. The driver said he had been told that his orders came from Alfredo Romualdez, a brother of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos’ wife, Imelda.

‘Looks Freshly Printed’

Cabrera said the matter was being investigated, adding: “We do not know where the money was going, nor do we know who it belongs to. But it looks freshly printed.”

He said the truck was stopped on Roxas Boulevard, near the U.S. Embassy. The driver, he said, offered the police officer who stopped him a 4,000-peso bribe to let him pass.

“Naturally, considering the size of the offer (about $200), the officer was suspicious,” Cabrera said. “We opened one of the crates. The bills were wrapped in plastic and banded. I opened one package. They were all 100-peso notes.”

Cabrera estimated that if all the crates contain 100-peso notes--he had not checked--there could be 130 million pesos in all, about $6.5 million.

“This interception is something that has never happened before,” he said, “the biggest find ever.”

Government Alert

The driver and his escort, an armed coast guard sergeant, were arrested, and the new government of Corazon Aquino, suspicious that Marcos and his associates might be trying to get public money out of the country, is being especially alert.

In a press conference Wednesday, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, the new armed forces chief, said: “There is a danger of money being spirited out of crony banks. Let’s keep vigilant.”

At her inauguration the day before, Aquino told government workers “to preserve all records with scrupulous care.”

Inevitably, however, not everyone obeyed. American television viewers were shown film of files being burned at the Justice Ministry. A man supervising the operation put his hand over the camera lens.

The word crony has a specific meaning here--friends of Marcos who were helped in their business affairs by the power of the presidency. Several friends went into banking. Eduardo Cojuangco, a close Marcos ally and a cousin of Aquino, established a coconut monopoly with the president’s help and founded the United Coconut Planters Bank.

High-Tech Gift

Roberto Benedicto, who ran a monopoly in sugar, operates the Traders Royal Bank. Reporters who entered Marcos’ bedroom at Malacanang Palace on Tuesday night after the president had fled the country saw a high-tech television-video set inscribed as a gift from Bobby Benedicto.

Marcos and his associates have been accused of secretly sending millions of dollars abroad, in bank accounts, real estate and other investments, and some of this is alleged to be government money or money raised with presidential help.

So-called hidden wealth was an embarrassing issue for Marcos in the recent election campaign. At first he denied charges that he and his wife had vast real estate holdings abroad. Later he said, “We just ignore those accusations.”

The new government is paying particular attention to gold, but some people seem to be more interested in which of the president’s men have left the country.

No Stop Orders

Brig. Gen. Augustus Paiso, appointed Wednesday as head of the Aviation Security Command, the military police at the international airport, said he had no orders to stop any officials of the Marcos regime from leaving the country, but his office was clearly following their movements.

An officer was asked whether Estelito Mendoza, the minister of justice under Marcos, had left the Philippines as reported in the local press, and he replied, “No, not yet. He’s going on a 5 o’clock flight to San Francisco.”

Other presidential associates reported to have fled the country include Cojuangco, Benedicto, Assembly Speaker Nicanor Yniguez and Arturo Pacificador, a member of Parliament charged with taking part in a 1984 election massacre in the province of Antique--a charge that was dropped.