By Kris Bayos
Manila Bulletin
Manila Bulletin
Manila, Philippines — The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has decided to keep the preliminary report about Ilocos Sur Governor Maria Imelda “Imee” Marcos-Manotoc’s alleged offshore trust account “confidential” and instead launched a joint investigation with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Ombudsman.
In a statement released yesterday, the PCGG confirmed that the internal task force created to conduct initial investigation of Manotoc’s offshore trust account in the British Virgin Islands has already submitted its preliminary report.
“The PCGG evaluation team which looked into the alleged offshore account of Gov. Imee Marcos-Manotoc has submitted a 12-page preliminary report to the Commission en banc,” the agency said.
“(But) at this time, the preliminary report will be kept confidential given the sensitive nature of the matter and until certain legal and factual issues are verified and resolved,” the PCGG said.
The PCGG en banc likewise decided it will furnish the DOJ and the Office of the Ombudsman of the preliminary report compiled by the internal task force, led by PCGG Commissioner for Research Maita Chan-Gonzaga and Commissioner for Litigation Vicente Gengos.
“The Commission will furnish the DOJ and the Office of the Ombudsman of the said preliminary report once finalized. The Commission is closely coordinating with these offices for a joint investigation,” the PCGG said.
It was recalled that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has named Imee as one of the world’s elite-holders of anonymous wealth stashed in tax havens overseas.
The ICIJ’s “naming project” discovered that Imee is one of the beneficiaries of the Sintra Trust, which was formed in June 2002 in the BVI. Other beneficiaries include Imee’s sons Ferdinand Richard Michael Marcos Manotoc, Matthew Joseph Marcos Manotoc, and Fernando Martin Marcos Manotoc.
Citing the ICIJ investigative report, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) said scores of documents, the latest of which are dated 2010, “show that Imee was a financial advisor for the Sintra Trust; a company in which the Sintra Trust was a beneficial shareholder called ComCentre Corporation, which was formed in January 2002 in the BVI and still in operation; and a ‘master client’ for the M Trust, formed July 1997 in Labuan, Malaysia, but had closed in July 2009.”
Imee is already facing pending forfeiture cases together with her mother, former First Lady Imelda Marcos and siblings Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Irene Marcos over an undetermined worth of wealth they illegally amassed during the term of President Marcos.
Imee was named in the ICIJ report alongside France’s Jean-Jacques Augier, François Hollande’s 2012 election campaign co-treasurer; Mongolia’s former finance minister, Bayartsogt Sangajav; the wife of Russia’s deputy prime minister Olga Shuvalova; a senator’s husband in Canada, lawyer Tony Merchant; Spain’s wealthiest art collector, Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza; and the ex-wife of notorious oil trader, Denise Rich.
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