Human rights abuses, Marcos loot recalled on EDSA anniversary

Victims of torture on Friday recalled the human rights abuses committed under the Marcos dictatorship on occasion of the 36th anniversary of the EDSA Revolution  which ousted the President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

In Maki Pulido's report on "24 Oras", former Presidential Commission on Good Government commissioner Ruben Carranza brought to mind the billions of pesos worth of ill-gotten wealth found to have been stolen by the Marcoses.

Amnesty International pegged the number of those killed under the Martial Law from 1972 to 1981 at 3,200 while those who were illegally detained at 70,000.

The Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance said there were 976 desaparacidos under the Marcos regime.

Marcos was also found guilty of gross human rights violations by the US Federal District Court of Hawaii.

The PCGG estimated that the ill-gotten wealth under the name of the Marcoses was worth $5 billion to $10 billion.

Former Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has indicated that he didn't know where this amount of wealth was. He said he didn't have it.

The Philippine government, through the PCGG, has recovered P35 billion from the Marcoses' Swiss bank accounts.

Also recovered were pieces of property in New York and Hawaii in the US, and P1-billion worth of jewelry.

Carranza said Bongbong was a co-administrator with his mother Imelda of ill-gotten wealth yet to be recovered.

"Siya mismo hanggang ngayon ay kasama sa pagpapatakbo," Carranza said.

GMA News sought Bongbong and Senator Imee Marcos for comment but they have yet to respond. —NB, GMA News