Nearly All Industries Paid Marcos a Cut, Trial Informed

Deposed dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos held secret interest in virtually every industry in the Philippines and had much of his share of the proceeds--millions of pesos weekly--delivered to the presidential palace in bags or boxes of cash, according to evidence introduced Thursday in the federal fraud and racketeering trial of former first lady Imelda Marcos.

Former Philippine banker Rolando Gapud, the man who managed much of the far-flung, secret investments of the Marcoses, told jurors that he collected the cash on orders from the palace and disbursed it to various numbered bank accounts in Hong Kong and the Philippines for the Marcoses.

Jurors got their first glimpse at the massive holdings of the late dictator when prosecutors introduced a list of properties, bank accounts and corporations that Marcos secretly controlled. The 22-page list, compiled by Marcos’ daughter Imee Manotoc in 1984, contained only a portion of the family’s holdings, prosecutors contend.

The list showed that the Marcoses had substantial or controlling interest in banks, petroleum companies, gold mines, timber and wood producers, in steel and automotive manufacturing, in the nation’s telephone monopoly, the shipping industry, radio and television stations, electric utilities, hotels, real estate developments, tobacco producers, breweries and commercial fishing operations.

Marcos had substantial interest in boat makers, ice makers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and movie theaters.

According to the list, Marcos even got a 10-peso fee (about 50 cents) for every bag of cement produced by the nation’s leading cement maker.

Other Philippine businessmen have testified that they were forced to turn over shares in their companies to President Marcos in order to stay in business.

One businessman, the former owner of a Manila auto assembly plant, told jurors that troops forced him from his business after a dispute over Marcos’ claim to interest in his company. It was Gapud who represented Marcos in that dispute.

Gapud’s testimony also gave substantial support to the contention of prosecutors that Mrs. Marcos was a full partner with her husband in schemes to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars from the Philippine treasury to overseas investments, including four New York skyscrapers.

In testimony striking at the heart of defense claims that then-President Marcos--not his wife--handled financial matters, Gapud said he dealt directly with Mrs. Marcos in relation to the couple’s ownership and management of the New York real estate investments.

For example, he described a 1984 meeting at Mrs. Marcos’ Manhattan townhouse at which property managers gave a report about the financial performance and physical conditions of the buildings the Marcoses secretly owned. Gapud said Mrs. Marcos chaired the two-hour meeting.

“I recall that the managers . . . were saying that they needed at least $10 million to refurbish (one of the buildings) and . . . Mrs. Marcos then asked me if we had the money. I said, ‘yes, we do,’ ” Gapud testified.

According to various witnesses, the Marcoses paid more than $100 million to purchase the four buildings. They included the gold-encrusted landmark Crown Building on fashionable 5th Avenue, the Herald Square shopping center and office towers on Wall Street.