Manila Sues Marcos, Kin for $22 Billion in Damages

The Philippine government today sued ousted President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his family for $22.6 billion in damages it says Filipinos suffered during his 20-year rule, including $10 billion the Marcoses and associates allegedly stole.

Ramon Diaz, chairman of a commission tracking down funds Marcos allegedly siphoned out of the country, said government lawyers also are preparing criminal charges against Marcos. But Diaz said the attorneys were tied up with more civil suits against about 40 individuals who allegedly connived with Marcos.

Anti-Graft Court

The Presidential Commission on Good Government, which Diaz heads, filed the civil suit before a special anti-graft court.

In the suit, the government seeks the return of $10 billion the Marcoses and associates allegedly acquired illegally. It also asks for $12.5 billion in actual, moral and exemplary damages and an additional $12.5 million as reimbursement for expenses in tracking down Marcos’ assets in the Philippines and abroad.

Diaz told a news conference that $12.5 billion is “a very conservative estimate” of the damages suffered by Filipinos from the corruption of Marcos, his wife, Imelda, their three children and two sons-in-law.

Most of the $10 billion that the Marcoses allegedly acquired illegally is believed to be in secret Swiss bank accounts and foreign investments.

The suit accuses the Marcoses of “breach of public trust” and “abuse of right and power” in their “plunder of the nation’s wealth.” It says they committed “theft of public funds . . . extortion, bribery, embezzlement and other acts of corruption.”

Meanwhile, the commission also said today it had rejected an offer by a Saudi Arabian businessman to invest $1 billion in the Philippines in exchange for dropping all pending cases against Marcos.

A statement said the offer was made in April by Mohammed Fassi, linked to two Americans who tricked Marcos into discussing plans to invade his homeland and restore himself to power.