The Philippines Chasing Marcos' Millions

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The documents arrived at the office of New York Democrat Stephen Solarz, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, in three bulging brown folders. Hours before, at the State Department, an identical package had been delivered to Jovito Salonga, head of the official Philippine commission charged with recouping the scattered wealth of deposed President Ferdinand Marcos and his free-spending wife Imelda. In all, the 2,300 pages formed an intriguing if incomplete treasure map of the vast fortune that Marcos, his family and cronies command. The cache only confirmed much of what Salonga had already unearthed among the personal effects the Marcoses abandoned in Manila more than a month ago. But he was outraged nonetheless. "I am shocked," he said. "I cannot imagine this kind of greed."

The papers released last week merely added to the mounting evidence of Marcos' misdeeds, including apparent fraud, corporate kickbacks and attempted embezzlement of U.S. aid. The incriminating material, which Marcos brought with him to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii when he fled, became available after more than two weeks of legal wrangling among Solarz, Salonga and Marcos' lawyers. The maneuvering gave the Philippine government a foretaste of what it will face in the months, and perhaps years, ahead as it tries to recover the former leader's riches. The jockeying was also an early test of relations between President Reagan, who has personally pledged to treat Marcos with "dignity," and Philippine President Corazon Aquino, who has indicated she would consider it an act of bad faith for the White House to protect the wily former President. Last week Washington attempted to strike an artful balance between the competing interests. While the Justice Department intervened in federal court to help secure release of the documents, the State Department was busy trying, unsuccessfully as it turned out, to negotiate a safe haven in Panama for Marcos, who was reportedly fearful of being subpoenaed for congressional hearings or brought to trial in U.S. courts.

The Marcos papers, carried from Manila in six suitcases, hint at a worldwide network of almost unimaginable wealth. One balance sheet alone lists a total of $88.7 million in five banks in the U.S., Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. Imelda Marcos' taste for opulent adornment was also in evidence. A document dated November 1984 shows $411,746 in purchases of jewelry, including emeralds, rubies and one 519-carat sapphire. There were indications that the Marcoses may have sensed their impending ouster. Among the papers were $4 million in certificates and bearer bonds, most of which were issued in the month before the couple departed Manila.