Manila to send team to Switzerland - Germany to probe Marcos wealth

According to the reports, the delegation would be composed of Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, Solicitor General Simeon Marcelo and Jorge Sarmiento, the officer in charge of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG). Sarmiento said the team would investigate reports that a daughter of Marcos, Irene Marcos-Araneta, tried to transfer some 13.2 billion dollars from a Swiss bank account to a German bank in an attempt to launder the fabled Marcos wealth. "We have to touch base again with the Swiss and German authorities," said Sarmiento, whose agency was formed in 1986 to recover billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth of Marcos, his family and cronies.

The delegation will also directly submit documents about the Marcos case to Swiss and German officials, he added. In the past, the Philippines merely faxed documents to foreign officials. Sarmiento noted that the government wanted to impress upon the foreign officials the urgency that President Macapagal Arroyo had attached to recovering the Marcos wealth. "The old strategy was slow, so we thought that by personally going there and meeting and discussing with them, it would speed up the case," he said. Despite numerous reports that most of the Marcos billions are hidden in Switzerland, the PCGG has so far recovered only 590 million dollars in cash deposits from two Swiss banks. The money has been placed in an escrow account at the Philippine National Bank and has grown to 640 million dollars. Last week, the agency confirmed the existence of five more Marcos accounts holding some 50 million dollars in Switzerland. It has also intensified contacts with Swiss and German authorities about the Araneta account. The Marcoses fled into Hawaiian exile after a four-day popular revolt toppled the dictator's 20-year regime in February 1986. They are accused of looting billions of dollars from the national coffers in addition to committing a wide range of atrocities.

(dpa)