$400 Million Regained From Marcos, Court Told

The Philippine government in Manila has garnered about $400 million in its effort to regain $5 billion allegedly looted from the country by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, his wife, Imelda, and their business associates, according to a ranking government official.

David Castro, chairman of the Philippine Commission on Good Government, made the revelation during a Los Angeles federal court hearing Monday in which Imelda Marcos asserted that she had negotiated an end to a $5-billion fraud suit against her and her husband. Castro disputed the contention, as did Alejandro Roces, publisher of a Philippine newspaper, who served as an intermediary in negotiations between Marcos and the government of President Corazon Aquino.

U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer said she would issue a ruling after she had received further answers to written questions that have been submitted to Aquino.