The $10bn question: what happened to the Marcos millions?
In the 21 years Ferdinand Marcos ran the Philippines, billions went missing. As his son stands for vice-president, will the stolen fortune ever be recovered?
In the early hours of a February morning in 1986, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos flew into exile. After 21 years as president of the Philippines, Marcos had rigged one too many elections. The army had turned against him, and the people had come out on to the streets in their thousands. The Marcoses had seen the crisis coming and been able to prepare their escape, so when they landed that morning at the Hickham USAF base in Hawaii, they brought plenty of possessions with them.
The official US customs record runs to 23 pages. In the two C-141 transport planes that carried them, they had packed: 23 wooden crates; 12 suitcases and bags, and various boxes, whose contents included enough clothes to fill 67 racks; 413 pieces of jewellery, including 70 pairs of jewel-studded cufflinks; an ivory statue of the infant Jesus with a silver mantle and a diamond necklace; 24 gold bricks, inscribed “To my husband on our 24th anniversary”; and more than 27m Philippine pesos in freshly-printed notes. The total value was $15m.
Other autocrats were stealing from their people – in Haiti, Nicaragua, Iran – but Marcos stole more and he stole better
All the Marcoses had to do was turn on the taps anywhere in the world and cash would come pouring out
Reports said the White House was leaning on the prosecutors to go soft to avoid embarrassment for five US presidents
Bongbong is still laying claim to stolen wealth: ‘If he wins, we don’t see how we can do our work’
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