Manila Freezes $100 Million in Bank Accounts in Search for Illegal Marcos Assets

The Philippine government has frozen personal and corporate bank accounts of more than $100 million in its search for illegal assets of the Marcos family and its allies, a member of the Commission on Good Government said Thursday.

Raul Daza of the commission estimated that 2 billion to 3 billion pesos have been frozen, at least $100 million at the rate of 20 pesos to the dollar.

Asked at a press conference how many accounts have been blocked for investigation, Daza said: “We never counted the accounts. . . . Many.”

He said members of the commission’s staff sifted through boxes of documents found at Malacanang Palace after President Ferdinand E. Marcos, his family and close friends fled the country on Feb. 25.

He said the staff reports exclusively to Jovito R. Salonga, the commission chairman, and Salonga has ordered that none of the material be made public. Salonga is in the United States pursuing the investigation into what the government calls the hidden and ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos regime.

Sees Link to New Yorkers

Explaining the secrecy, Daza said, “The assumption is that these documents are vital, and the less people that know about them the better.”

Asked whether they include any “smoking-gun” evidence of assets diverted abroad, Daza said some of them provide a link between Marcos and Ralph and Joseph Bernstein, the New York real estate men who allegedly bought property in New York City for the Marcos family.

“They indicate that the Bernsteins held the properties on behalf of Mr. Marcos,” he said, without identifying the properties.

Daza said that to his knowledge there is no document before the commission to support charges, raised in the United States, that Marcos illegally funneled contributions to the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.

List of Companies

The commission made public a list of companies and institutions whose assets have been sequestered since President Corazon Aquino took office three weeks ago. Among them are the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and the Cultural Center of the Philippines, which were pet projects of Marcos’ wife, Imelda.

Also on the list is the Tourist Duty-Free Shops, a corporation allegedly used by Marcos’ allies to bring luxury goods into the country despite government restrictions.

“The commission will continue to do its duty no matter who gets hurt,” Daza said.

Meanwhile, Manila press reports attributed to high government sources said that Aquino is expected soon to declare a six-month transitional government that would have a mixture of “revolutionary and democratic” characteristics.

These reports said she is expected to dissolve the current National Assembly, create a commission to draft a new constitution and schedule elections for local officials and possibly a new National Assembly for next fall.