FORMER first lady and now Ilocos Norte Representative Imelda Marcos should tell the truth on two issues still causing political unrest in the country more than three decades after the death of her husband Ferdinand Marcos, former President Fidel V. Ramos said on Sunday.
Ramos, who served as chief of the Philippine Constabulary under the Marcos dictatorship, urged Mrs. Marcos, “Asia’s Iron Butterfly,” to talk about her family’s alleged hidden wealth and the murder of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr.
“The former first lady must be the one to speak for the family now because she knows more than any of the children. Number 1, where’s the rest of the hidden wealth?” Ramos told the online news portal Rappler.
“Number 2, what happened in August 1983. Really, what happened? It was not [Rolando] Galman [who killed Benigno Aquino Jr.].”
The Presidential Commission on Good Government, which was tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the late dictator, his family and cronies in their almost 20-year rule in Malacañang, has recovered over the last 30 years at least P170 billion in cash despite working on a budget of only P2.9 billion over the same period.
Various estimates put the total Marcos loot at between $5 billion and $10 billion.
To date, however, the PCGG has recovered only a fraction of what was stolen by the Marcos network, while no one has served a prison sentence for their part in the alleged crime.
Meanwhile, some accounts claim that Marcos ordered Aquino’s assassination but that was never proven.
Galman was the other person killed on the tarmac when Aquino arrived in Manila after three years of exile and was gunned down by an airport security personnel after he supposedly shot Aquino at close range.
Following Aquino’s death, the opposition to the Marcos regime grew strong and resulted in the People Power Revolution that drove Marcos from power and thrust Aquino’s widow Corazon into the presidency in 1986.
After Corazon assumed the presidency, she appointed Ramos head of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and later defense secretary.
Ramos then ran for president and won in 1992.
