PCGG: More than P171 billion in Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth recovered

More than P171 billion worth of the ill-gotten wealth stolen from the country's coffers by the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos have been recovered, data from the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) report for 2017 showed.

According to a Balitanghali report by Mariz Umali, it was in 1997 when the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ordered that the money in the Marcoses' Swiss accounts be returned to the Philippine government.

Six years later, the Supreme Court in the Philippines ordered the forfeiting of the Swiss funds, which amounted to P35 billion.

INFOGRAPHIC: The hunt for the Marcoses' ill-gotten wealth

Cash worth P1 billion stashed away in Singapore was also ordered returned to the country in 2012.

Meanwhile, the Marcoses' properties in Baguio City and in the cities of San Juan, Pasig, and Quezon were also returned.

In 1992, two jewelry collections kept by Imelda were also recovered by the PCGG.

Despite these developments, there have been calls to abolish the agency during the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Last month, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a measure seeking to strengthen the functions of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), including taking over the PCGG. The current Solicitor General, Jose Calida, headed a group called the Alyansang Duterte-Bongbong that pushed for the tandem of Duterte and Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. during the elections.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a 2010 Sandiganbayan ruling that dismissed the PCGG's P51-billion claim against the Marcoses and their alleged cronies on the grounds that that the documentary and testimonial evidence presented by the PCGG was insufficient. — Anna Felicia Bajo/BM, GMA News