Proceeds from sale of Imelda-owned art to go to agrarian reform – PCGG

The proceeds from the sale of Imelda Marcos' artworks, which figured in her ex-assistant's conspiracy trial in New York, will go to the government's agrarian reform program, the head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) said.

Asked why the funds will go to those who suffered human rights abuses under the Marcos regime, PCGG chairperson Andres Bautista said the artworks are not part of Ferdinand Marcos' personal assets. The human rights abuse victims had won a case in Hawaii for compensation from the personal assets of the deposed dictator.

Bautista defines Marcos' personal assets as those that were legitimately earned. The artworks, he said, were purchased using ill-gotten wealth.

"We're not against the human rights victims of Marcos. Pero hindi nila pwedeng habulin ang pera ng taumbayan," Bautista told GMA News Online by phone.

Convicted by a jury for conspiring to sell the artworks without authority is Imelda's former secretary Vilma Bautista, who connived with her nephews to sell these on the black market. She claimed that Imelda gave her the authority to do so.
 
"Itong painting na ito, kapag babasahin mo 'yung press statement ng New York District Attorney's Office, maliwanag na sinabi nila na ang ginamit na pera para mabili ang paintings ay state funds," the PCGG head added.

The money from proceeds would be poured to the budget of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of the Agrarian Reform department, as the law cites ill-gotten wealth as a source of fund for CARP, Bautista said.

CARP is the state's beneficiary program of redistributing agricultural lands to landless farmers.

The four artworks at the center of the issue are said to be part of the massive art collection of the former first lady and current Ilocos Norte representative. These consist of two works by Claude Monet, including one from his water lily series, and one each from fellow Impressionist Alfred Sisley and the Fauvist Albert Marquet.

Marcos' former aide originally sold the $32-million water lily Monet to Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, a London gallery art, which then sold it to British billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard for $43 million.

Howard has reportedly paid $10 million to a group of Martial Law victims supposedly to forfeit any legal claim on his ownership of the Monet painting.

The PCGG said the latest conspiracy trial, which convicted a Marcos aide, is a step closer to tracing the unaccounted wealth illegally accumulated by the Marcoses at the height of their dictatorship.

No additional CARP funds

Sought for an explanation on how the proceeds from Marcos' looted art may be used, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio Delos Reyes clarified that these funds do not necessarily translate to additional money for CARP as they would only augment the allotted budget for agrarian reform.

This means the proceeds would add to the funds for CARP but would replace the part of the budget that would have been sourced from taxpayers' money.

"The impact is if there is more money collected by the PCGG, it simply means there is less money coming from taxes that will be used for CARP," Delos Reyes told GMA News Online by phone.

He added that it is the government coffers that receive additional funds and not CARP.

"Ang palaging misimpression, kapag may pumasok na pera sa PCGG, dadagdagan ang CARP. Hindi eh. Nadadagdagan ang pera ng gobyerno in general. But not for CARP," Delos Reyes said. — BM, GMA News