Ariyoshi Says He Returned Marcos Cash

Former Gov. George Ariyoshi, in his first public response to a recent Los Angeles Times report that Imelda Marcos paid him $50,000 in 1982, has confirmed that he received a package of cash from the Philippines then-first lady but said that he had returned it.

According to Ariyoshi, Mrs. Marcos tried in vain to persuade him to keep the money and use it on unspecified “Filipino projects” in Hawaii.

“I have not done anything wrong, and this unfortunate incident was not one of my making,” Ariyoshi said in a written statement delivered to Hawaiian news offices late Friday afternoon.

Existence of the secret cash payment was discovered recently in a Marcos travel expense ledger, part of the voluminous evidence submitted already in the ongoing fraud and racketeering trial of Mrs. Marcos in New York. The ledger does not note the return of the cash.

Ariyoshi, who retired in 1986 after three terms, said the cash was delivered to the governor’s mansion in an envelope along with other gifts. He said that after discovering the contents he rewrapped it without counting the cash.

“I did not want to touch the money and do not know how much there was,” he said in the statement.

“I subsequently returned it, at which time Mrs. Marcos said it could be used to assist various Filipino projects in Hawaii. I declined, realizing that there would never be enough to meet all such requests and suggested she could do this herself.”

According to the court documents filed in New York, Mrs. Marcos presented the gift to Ariyoshi on July 20, 1982, during a stopover en route to Manila after visits to the Soviet Union, Morocco and New York. The sole ledger entry, handwritten by Mrs. Marcos’ private secretary, said simply:

“$50,000--Given to Gov. Ariyoshi.”

Federal prosecutors contend that Mrs. Marcos and her late husband, former Philippines President Ferdinand E. Marcos, looted their nation’s treasury and spent hundreds of millions of dollars on art, jewelry, real estate and other personal expenses in the United States.

Attorneys for Mrs. Marcos argue that the spending by the ousted Philippine leaders was to finance anti-communist policies and other proper official responsibilities. They also deny that Mrs. Marcos gave Ariyoshi an envelope containing $50,000 in cash.

Ariyoshi, now a private lawyer, did not return repeated calls from The Times prior to publication of the original report on May 19.

Staff writer Rempel reported from Los Angeles, and Essoyan, a free-lance journalist, reported from Honolulu.