THE return of a portion of ill-gotten wealth by the Marcoses is an indication of their oblique admission of "regret" for looting public’s funds during the decades-long regime of late President Ferdinand Marcos, former senator Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr. said Thursday.
Pimentel made the remark when sought for his reaction to the Marcos family's plan to turn over “few gold bars” in their possession.
“The return of the loot of the Marcoses must be done, in order to assuage the people that there’s a certain degree of regret, even if it is not verbally expressed,” the former senator told Palace reporters.
The current administration is expected to hold negotiations with the Marcoses, who earlier expressed willingness to give back some of the properties they accumulated during the former despot’s lengthy stay in power.
President Rodrigo Duterte said on September 5 that the Congress has to first pass a law that might grant an immunity to the Marcos clan before the negotiations can proceed.
At the 55th anniversary of Metrobank, the Chief Executive alluded that the Marcoses might back out from the deal if no immunity arrangement is reached.
Duterte explained that he could not decide alone on granting immunity to Marcoses in exchange for the return of a portion of their wealth, noting that it requires congressional nod.
"You have to have the consent of Congress because we have to formulate a law. What is the arrangement? You are asking for what? Immunity if you return? That’s a long process. It does not belong to me. It was just a signal from the Marcoses that they will bring back what the people are believing to be theirs," the President said.
"Marcoses would not agree to return if you put them behind bars. So I said you have to craft a law on that, and that is [to grant] immunity," he added.
Pimentel backed Duterte's appeal to Congress, saying crafting a law on possible immunity deal was "necessary."
The former senator said that the President has the special powers to act independently on the impending negotiations.
But Pimentel said it was more prudent for Duterte to seek Congress' participation, especially if he was hesitant to decide on his own.
"That alone that the President wants a law to be adopted is a sign that he does not want to decide on his own. Because otherwise, why will [he sought congressional approval]? He’s already in power,” he said.
"But even that, you can see the hesitancy of the President to say, 'I will decide this thing on my own,' It's better to have a law regarding that [negotiation]. That law, to my mind, is necessary," he added. (VoxPop Philippines)
