According to Vice Presidential Candidate and Senator Ferdinand ‘BongBong’ Marcos Jr., there were compensations provided for the Martial Law victims but then the government blocked its releasing.
On the other side, the court record shows that it was the other way around according to Presidential Commission on Good Government or more commonly known as PCGG. As to the PCGG, it was Senator Marcos himself who blocked those compensations. He didn’t allow his family’s ill-gotten wealth to be given back to the people.
According to the PCGG, record shows that the late dictator President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., opened an account in Panama which holds $40 – million or Php. 1.84 billion.
The Supreme Court gave its final judgment two years ago saying that Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth includes the said particular asset.
According to the PCGG in a statement, Senator Marcos Jr. is the one who blocks the return of their ill-gotten funds for more than 20 years already. He refused to award the Arelma funds to compensate those who are victims of the Martial Law.
Further, Senator Marcos Jr. and Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos, the senator’s mother and the former dictator’s wife, issued two petitions in the Supreme Court after their Arelma account was taken by the Sandiganbayan according to the commission. It was in favor of the government in 2009 that the Sandiganbayan forfeited an asset of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth.
Under the conditional cash program, the government subsidizes 300,000 families. The commission affirmed that fund in the Arelma account was enough to be used to cover the subsidies provided to 300,000 families for a year.
During the vice presidential debate, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo expressed her strong affirmation that the Marcoses’ should return all their ill-gotten wealth to the people. In response to his fellow vice presidential aspirant, Senator BongBong stressed that he could not give what he does not have.