Marcos Got $150 Million From Treasury, Presumably for Election, Auditors Say

MANILA —  Officials of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos withdrew more than $150 million from the Philippine treasury during the election period, presumably to finance his reelection campaign, government auditors reported Wednesday.

Teofisto Guingona, head of the Commission on Audits, told a closed Cabinet meeting that the withdrawals--nearly 3.12 billion pesos--were made as cash advances, a presidential spokesman said.

Commission sources said the advances were issued in December and January, before the Feb. 7 election contest between Marcos and now-President Corazon Aquino. An investigation is continuing on the use of the funds, they said, but they asserted that much of the money was spent on the campaign.

Independent economic analysts have estimated Marcos’ total campaign spending at more than $250 million, most of it distributed as cash enticements to voters. The payoffs flooded the nation’s already troubled economy with so much money that it actually helped devalue the Philippine peso, but the analysts so far have been unable to pinpoint the sources of the funds.

Used Development Funds

In addition to the cash advances, Guingona’s auditors have already disclosed cash withdrawals totaling about $5 million from the national treasury personally ordered by Marcos during the election campaign. Those funds were drawn on accounts earmarked for government schools and public works projects in underdeveloped Philippine villages.

According to the commission sources, the cash advances announced Wednesday included more than $6 million paid to an administrative assistant in the Office of Media Affairs. The report was part of a top-to-bottom audit of government expenditures under the Marcos regime.

Spokesman Rene Saguisag called the withdrawals “unliquidated advances” and said no new advances to the ministries involved will be made until an accounting is completed.

Chief Justice Named

In other developments here Wednesday:

--Claudio Teehankee, 67, was named chief justice of the Supreme Court. Twice in the last year, Marcos had passed over Teehankee, the senior sitting justice and a liberal, to name others to the post. It was Teehankee who administered the oath of office to Aquino as president on Feb. 25, the same day Marcos took his oath of office for a new term and then left the country to go into exile.

Teehankee said Aquino will make more appointments to the 15-judge court this week. The Supreme Court justices and other judges have submitted “courtesy resignations” to Aquino, but Teehankee predicted that not all would be replaced.

--Jovito R. Salonga, head of the presidential Commission on Good Government, returned to Manila from a 19-day investigative trip to the United States and predicted that “a good portion of the ill-gotten wealth (of Marcos and his family) will surely be recovered.”

He said that Ramon Diaz, a commission member who accompanied him, “brought home the bacon” with nearly 200 land titles to Philippine property reportedly owned by Marcos. Diaz received the titles from Jose Y. Campos, a Marcos business associate living in Vancouver, Canada.

Bought by Front Firms

Salonga told an airport news conference that Campos admitted buying the properties through front companies that he established for Marcos. Most of the lots are in the eastern suburbs of Manila and along the South Superhighway. “I understand he got the land dirt-cheap” while the highway was still being built, Diaz said.

The Marcos-Campos holdings in the Manila area, disclosed by The Times earlier this week, were valued at more than $20 million. The bulk of the Marcos wealth is held in Swiss bank accounts, Salonga said.

“As early as 1968, Mr. Marcos and his wife were depositing enormous sums in Swiss banks under code names in their own handwriting,” he told reporters. Salonga said the government has filed suits in New York, New Jersey and Texas seeking possession of reported Marcos-owned properties and will soon file similar actions in California and Washington state. He gave no details on the California or Washington properties.

Later in the day, Salonga met with Aquino to detail his findings on what he termed “the unprecedented plunder of an entire nation” by the ousted Marcos, his family and associates. He said the government hopes to gain possession of the holdings, convert them to cash and return it to the treasury beginning “within several months.”

Debt Report Heard

The Cabinet meeting, Aquino’s third in five weeks in power, also heard a report on the Philippine stance on coming talks with the International Monetary Fund. Aquino wants to reschedule Philippine debt payments to the international lending agency.

Her spokesman, Saguisag, said the country’s overall foreign debt, public and private, stood at $26.2 billion as of last Dec. 1. During the election campaign, some of Aquino’s supporters had charged that it ran as high as $40 billion.

Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin and Central Bank President Jose Fernandez will leave soon for the United States and Japan for talks on the debt, Saguisag said.

The spokesman also said that Aquino is expected to address the country on television this week on hotly disputed issues concerning local office holders. The Cabinet reportedly agreed to allow candidacies in the next local elections by so-called officers in charge, men and women who have taken over some local governments and agencies when officials elected under the Marcos regime were dismissed or resigned at Aquino’s request.

In another continuing political controversy, the United Nationalist Democratic Organization, the party of Salvador Laurel, Aquino’s vice president, said it will join assemblymen of Marcos’ party, the KBL, in reconvening the National Assembly later this month in defiance of Aquino’s abolition of the legislature.