$29 Million or ₱1.3 Billion from Marcos' Swiss bank accounts returned to the Philippine Government

An estimated $29 million or ₱1.3 Billion, previously stored in secret Swiss accounts kept by the late President Ferdinand Marcos and family members, have been returned to the Philippine government. 

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) made this announcement on Wednesday, roughly two weeks before the Philippines is set to commemorate the 1986 People Power Revolution that deposed Marcos who, with close family members, relatives, and cronies, sought exile in Hawaii. 

Worth P1.3 billion, the funds were from accounts held in the name of several foundations which were later proven to be "fronts of the [members of the] Marcos family," Andres Bautista, PCGG Chairperson said in a press briefing held on Wednesday morning. 

The funds—which were originally denominated in two currencies including the British pound—were transferred to the national treasury after the PCGG, on the strength of Philippine, Swiss, and Singaporean court decisions, engaged in talks with several financial institutions to recover the Marcoses' ill-gotten wealth. 

In 1997, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ordered the funds to be turned over to the Philippine government, Bautista explained. 

"There was enough evidence to convince the Swiss courts particularly the highest court of Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, to say that these are really ill-gotten wealth and that's why they agreed to the repatriation of these funds back to the Philippines," he said during the briefing. 

However, the Swiss court set conditions before the funds be turned over to the Philippine government. 

These conditions were: that the funds were to be invested in a double A bank; that a final decision regarding the matter be issued by the Philippines' Supreme Court; and that the Philippine government should enter an escrow arrangement with another bank. 

As a result of the Swiss court ruling, the money was later placed in West Landesbank in Singapore and the Philippine government arranged to have the money temporarily held by the privately-led Philippine National Bank, which used to be one of the government's depository banks but is now a lender controlled by businessman Lucio Tan, a known associate of the Marcoses. 

In July 2003, the Philippine Supreme Court issued a decision granting the forfeiture of these assets in favor of the government. 

Not long after, a case was filed in Singapore by lawyers of human rights victims during the Marcos dictatorship. The case sought to stake a claim on funds from the Swiss accounts that were, at that time, stored in West Landesbank. 

But in August 2012, a Singapore High Court sustained the claim of the Philippine National Bank, stating that "it holds the legal title as a trustee of the Republic of the Philippines," Bautista explained during the briefing. 

In December 2013, the Singapore Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment, paving the way for a meeting between "the PCGG, the PNB, as well as the [Wes Landesbank] which held the funds," regarding the fund turnover, Bautista said. 

And on February 5 and 10, the PCGG was finally able to turn over the funds to the Philippine national treasury, Bautista said. 

A total of P166 billion have been recovered by the PCGG in its 28-year existence, Bautista said.

PINOY MAG NEGOSYO KA, Post your ads, Services, Products, Jobs, Auction and win the bidding .. Bring all your store online FREE Visit Pilipinas Online Shopping Mall at [ www.PilipinasMall.com ]

 

Continue reading

Israel offers excess defense radars for ₱2.6 Billion to the Philippines; 1 lent radar to arrive this year

Israel offers excess defense articles to Philippines

Israel has offered to provide the Philippines with excess defense articles.

Department of National Defense spokesman Peter Galvez said Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon discussed the matter during a bilateral meeting in Tel Aviv last week.

“Israel also offered assistance in the development of command, control, communications, computers and intelligence capabilities as well as the availability of excess defense articles for Philippine acquisition,” he said.

Gazmin and Ya’alon also discussed the prospects of information exchange, particularly on terrorism and technology-sharing.

Earlier, The STAR reported that the Philippines would acquire three air search radars from Israel to boost monitoring activities in the West Philippine Sea.

The radars will be purchased from state-run Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.-Elta for ₱2.6 billion.

Last week, security officials signed an implementation arrangement to pave the way for the purchase.

Part of the deal is for Israel to lend one radar for the immediate security needs of the Philippines.

The delivery of the three radars is expected within the next two years.

The radar to be lent will arrive in a year.  

The radars will be used to improve the country’s maritime domain awareness in the West Philippine Sea.

Galvez said Gazmin and Ya’alon also discussed the establishment of a working group to examine the security situation in their countries and to explore efforts to address common concerns.

“The working group will also come up with available solutions with cost considerations in regard to further enhancing the defense capability build-up of the Philippines,” he said.

Upon the invitation of Ya’alon, Gazmin visited Israel en route to his official visit to the Golan Heights - philSTAR

 

PINOY MAG NEGOSYO KA, Post your ads, Services, Products, Jobs, Auction and win the bidding .. Bring all your store online FREE Visit Pilipinas Online Shopping Mall at [ www.PilipinasMall.com ]

 

Continue reading

Philippines annex "Bangsamoro State" for Muslim self-rule in SOUTHERN PART MINDANAO signed for 2016

The Manila government has signed a deal with a MILF Muslim separatist group on the decommissioning of rebel weapons, paving the way for the creation of a new self-governing region for the country's Muslim minority in Mindanao by 2016.

The agreement – with the country's biggest Muslim rebel group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) – is the final piece of a deal initially agreed in October 2012 that many people hope will end more than four decades of violence in the southern Philippines that has left more than 100,000 people dead and retarded economic growth. Other aspects of the deal, on wealth, revenue and power sharing, have already been completed.

A peace agreement signed with another rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), in 1996 is largely considered a failure. Fighting worsened after it came into effect and the autonomous regional government created in its wake proved ineffectual.

"The agreement represents the culmination of decades of excruciating diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the conflict in Mindanao," said Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science lecturer at Ateneo de Manila University. "This provides an unprecedented opportunity to end one of the world's longest-running intrastate conflicts."

The groups left out of the agreement are the most violent in the southern Philippines, including the Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, which has carried out kidnappings, bombings and beheadings for more than a decade and says it wants to set up a strict Islamic state.

The peace deal is expected to be signed within the next several weeks, but analysts consider that just a formality. They say the true test of the pact will be in its implementation; a peace deal with another militant group in 1996 failed in part because of widespread corruption in the area it was supposed to control.

The negotiations were brokered by Malaysia, where the deal was reached, and countries including the United States and those in the European Union are expected to help in the implementation, providing aid and advice on good governance. Those countries want to sap the strength of Islamic insurgencies in the region.

On Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry offered congratulations for "concluding negotiations toward an historic, comprehensive peace agreement. This agreement offers the promise of peace, security, and economic prosperity now and for future generations in Mindanao."

The conflict between Muslim insurgent groups on Mindanao and the Christian-dominated government in the north of the country has simmered since the late 1800s. Every government since Philippine independence in 1946 has struggled to resolve the violence, through peace talks and sometimes military action.

In recent decades, the conflict has claimed an estimated 120,000 lives and displaced more than two million people. It has also kept the southern Philippines mired in poverty even as the country has undergone an economic renaissance of sorts, becoming one of the fastest growing economies in East Asia, with a growth rate that surpassed China's in some quarters last year.

"In a world looking for peaceful solutions to all troubles, we are grateful that we have found ours," Teresita Quintos Deles, a presidential adviser on the peace talks, said Saturday.

The Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have been working on the details of the peace deal since October 2012, when they reached a framework agreement for ending the conflict.

Earlier interim agreements dealt with sharing power and resources. Under those deals, the national government will retain authority over national defense, foreign policy and monetary issues, while the newly formed autonomous region, to be called Bangsamoro, is expected to have broad local powers.

The two parties also agreed that 75 percent of the tax revenue from metallic minerals mined in the region would stay in Mindanao. In addition, half of the taxes collected from fossil fuels developed in the region would remain with local authorities.

Saturday's agreement dealt with the delicate issue of disarmament. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front agreed to incorporate some of its 11,000 fighters into Philippine government forces and gradually disarm the others with the oversight of a third party yet to be named.

After the deal is formally signed, it must be passed by the Philippine congress and approved through plebiscite in the newly formed autonomous areas, but analysts consider passage extremely likely.

The success of the agreement may hinge in good part on the ability of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which will now be in charge of internal security in the autonomous area, to curb the violence of other militant groups. To do so, the peace deal envisions Muslim authorities working closely with Philippine security forces.

Another major group, the Moro National Liberation Front, signed the 1996 peace deal, but that agreement allowed the rebels to retain their arms and did little to end the violence. Those militants oppose the latest deal, which they say encroaches on the autonomy they were granted under their own pact. Factions of the group were involved in an incursion into the southern city of Zamboanga in September that left more than 200 people dead, most of them militants.

Government negotiators have said that bringing greater prosperity to Mindanao and empowering the largest peaceful Muslim groups in the area will help decrease violence and lawlessness. The United States has about 500 Special Forces troops based in Mindanao to help the Philippine military fight the most violent groups.

One analyst expressed skepticism about the chances for a lasting peace.

"The Aquino administration is in a hurry to finish this and claim credit for peace, but this isn't peace," said Bobit Avila, a columnist for The Philippine Star newspaper. "It will not bring peace unless all the armed groups in Mindanao will join in."

"I can visit Muslim countries around the world without fear, but I can't go to Mindanao or I will be kidnapped," Mr. Avila said. "I don't think this agreement will change that." - NY Times

 

PINOY MAG NEGOSYO KA, Post your ads, Services, Products, Jobs, Auction and win the bidding .. Bring all your store online FREE Visit Pilipinas Online Shopping Mall at [ www.PilipinasMall.com ]

Continue reading