House Panel Aids Hunt for Marcos Funds

The head of a Philippine commission investigating former President Ferdinand E. Marcos’ “hidden wealth” and the chairman of a U.S. House subcommittee agreed Friday to fully cooperate in trying to learn the extent of Marcos’ financial dealings.

“We will cooperate with the Philippine government in our investigation of Marcos’ hidden wealth and they have promised to cooperate fully in ours,” Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.) told a news conference after an hourlong meeting with Jovito R. Salonga in Solarz’s office.

Salonga is chairman of the Commission on Good Government, the panel appointed by Philippine President Corazon Aquino to investigate the financial dealings of her predecessor.

Solarz chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Asian and Pacific subcommittee, investigating Marcos holdings in the United States. The panel has estimated that Marcos and his wife, Imelda, own or control New York City area real estate worth at least $350 million.

The two panels will share information about the widespread financial holdings of Marcos, who is now staying at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu. Salonga estimated Marcos’ worth at $5 billion to $10 billion.

Both men said a prime target of their efforts is access to an estimated 1,500 documents Marcos took when he left Manila last month.

“Those documents were the ones Marcos took in the last crucial hours,” Salonga said. “We believe they show a great deal about what he owns and where it is and how he stole it from the Philippine people.”

The U.S. Customs Service has taken possession of the documents, but U.S. District Court Judge Richard Hibey granted a temporary restraining order in Honolulu on Thursday to bar the Customs Service from showing the papers to either Salonga’s commission or Solarz’s committee.

Solarz said his committee will meet Tuesday and “we fully expect to issue a subpoena for those documents.”