What will you do when you suddenly wake up with P75,000 in cash?

By DAWN CECILIA PEÑA
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – As another Marcos threatens to return to power, hundreds of millions in ill-gotten wealth have yet to be returned to the Filipino people.

Estimates of the ill-gotten wealth range from $5-10 billion to as much as $15 billion when Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was toppled in 1986.

“Assuming they had even just $5 billion in 1986, this could have inflated to at least $38.4 billion by 2021 from interest on deposits, earnings from investments, and appreciation in the value of real properties and assets,” said IBON Foundation, an independent think tank foundation.

With the rising unemployment and increasing prices of staple goods and services, this can actually provide, if evenly provided, 24.7 million households in the country at least P75,500, ($1,462) each.

The lowest estimate of the Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth, equivalent to P1.87 trillion at 2021 exchange rates, can put all 24.7 million households in the country under a food subsidy program that will last for three years and nine months.

It can grant three million farmer-beneficiaries with an expanded assistance program 48 times, based on 12-million ($234,000) funds. The P463 billion ($9 billion) worth of damages incurred from natural disasters from 2010 to 2019 can also be covered four times.

At least 21.8 million Filipino households can also be granted P10,000 ($193) financial assistance four times, while 900,000 public school teachers will be provided a monthly cash allowance of P5,000 ($97) for 34 years.

The ill-gotten wealth also Is 16,500 bigger than the country’s 2022 disease surveillance budget valued at P113,069,000 ($2.2 million) and 157 times bigger than the unused special allowance and hazard pay allocated for 20,000 health workers – worth P11.9 billion ($238.2 million).

The issue of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses was among those discussed in the grand-teach protest during the 36th year commemoration since the toppling of the dictator.

In 2018, the wife of the late dictator, Imelda Marcos, was convicted of seven counts of graft and corruption. For each case, she was sentenced to imprisonment for a minimum of six years and one month to 11 years, or a total of 42 years and seven months to 77 years. She was never arrested.

Renato Reyes, secretary-general of Bayan said, “the Marcoses used to their advantage the system in place in the country to pave their way back to Malacañang. They will use their ill-gotten wealth to return to power.” (JJE, RVO)