Thirty Years Later . . . Catching Up with the Marcos-Era Crimes. Myles Garcia

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СКАЧАТЬ cabinet was his energy minister, Geronimo Velasco whose “oil and energy” portfolio proved to be very lucrative both for him and Marcos. A former president of Dole Pineapple Philippines, the local subsidiary of Castle & Cooke, Velasco’s net worth at the time of Marcos’ fall and when government agents were starting to investigate him, was estimated to be around $50 million. He had properties in the most expensive areas of the Philippines and California, as well as the following corporations: Bataan Refining, Dole, Manila Memorial Park, Phil. Aerospace Dev. Corp., Phil. National Bank, Republic Glass, and at least thirty others as of the Manapat book listing in 1991.

      Hers

      Imelda, of course, when it seemed like she was going to become Heir Apparent later on, had to have her own support network of allies, financiers, generals, local politicians, etc. The Blue Ladies from the 1965 and 1969 campaigns were a start. (More on the Blue Ladies in Chapter III.)

      First on Imelda’s “Most Favored” List were her brothers and sisters, starting with the brother closest to her, Benjamin (“Kokoy”). Not only was the small-time lawyer and one-time gofer for Marcos, one-time ambassador to the US, China, and Saudi Arabia, but Kokoy also got among the biggest spoils of war and peace from his sister and brother-in-law. Kokoy ended up being the majority shareholder of Meralco Company (formerly owned by the Lopezes) and Benguet Consolidated, the oldest, most lucrative mining company in the Philippines and first one traded on the NY Stock Exchange.

      A second brother, Alfredo (“Bejo,” father of my ex-classmate, Margarita), got the shipbuilding and (off-shore) gambling concessions (later transferred onshore), among others. Sister Alita was married to Rudy Martel, whose family and own the Harrison Plaza/Century Park Sheraton property and steel (Marsteel), also among other concerns. There are others.

      Antonio Floirendo

      The best example of a “His and Hers” crony, who played and fulfilled the roles that serviced both Sir and Ma’am, was Antonio Floirendo, also sometimes known as “the banana king” during the heyday Marcos years. Floirendo started his career as a car salesman in Davao City (southern Philippines), selling Ford vehicles and parts in the late 1940s (although he graduated with a degree in mining engineering from Adamson University).

      From Manapat’s book: “He overcame those modest beginning by slowly and shrewdly cultivating his connections with ruling politicians, starting from the administration of president Carlos Garcia in the late 1950s. He perfected the art of currying the favor of politicians during the 20-year rule of Marcos and used it to join the select group of Marcos cronies.”

      “At the height of his economic power, Floirendo held one of the biggest banana plantations in the world, fronted for Marcos in a New York-based international sugar trading company, and served as Imelda’s dummy in many multimillion real estate deals in New York and shell corporations based in the Netherlands Antilles. He is now a millionaire with interests in agri-business, real estate, banking, and transportation. A high point in this former car salesman’s social climb was the marriage of his son, Antonio, ‘Tony Boy,’ Jr. to a Filipina who had earlier won the Miss Universe title.”

      (That was Margie Moran who won the Miss Universe title in Greece in 1973. Today, she runs the Floirendo family’s Davao Pearl Farm, which used to belong to the Aguinaldos. Floirendo’s daughter, Linda, also married another son of Manila’s mestizo, Forbes Park-elite, Tonet Lagdameo, whose father was an ex-Ambassador to the US during Marcos I-Era years; Tonet’s older sister is married to Oscar Lopez, and an older brother, Tito, is married to Aurora Cojuangco, Danding’s youngest sister. So again with the crisscrossing, ruling Manila elite connections.)

      Manapat continues: “Beyond serving as a business associate of the Marcoses, Floirendo is also a close friend who catered to their personal needs. When the Marcosess were in Davao, they stayed at the Floirendo mansion in the mammoth banana plantation Floirendo owned. The estate has a magnificent house, complete with a pool and waterfall. They threw lavish parties for the First Family and flew down planeloads of guests, food and drinks and entertainers from Manila, right in the midst of deplorable living and working conditions of the plantation workers. Wealthy and politically prominent, Floirendo figured as one of the more faithful businessmen in Imelda’s back-up group of Filipino industrialists. He was a regular member of Madame’s entourage in her trips abroad and invariably underwrote a good portion of her traveling expenses. When Mrs. Marcos visited New York in October 1985 to speak during the 40^th anniversary of the United Nations, Floirendo was part of her caravan. In that trip, he was feted as Guest of Honor in one of the dinners with Mrs. Marcos as a reward for his services to the Marcos couple.”

      Floirendo owned the mansion at 2442 Makiki Heights Drive in Honolulu, directly across from the Tantoco property where the Marcoses eventually settled for the long run in their exile in Hawaii. Through his Ancor Holdings, N.V., one of his several shell corporation registered in the Netherlands Antilles and set up with Roland Gapud’s help, he fronted for the purchase and ownership of three adjacent condominiums at the Olympic Tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, for Imelda. The walls of the three units were torn down to form a gigantic L-shaped apartment creating a panoramic view of the midtown Manhattan skyline. This was where the overflow of Imelda’s French Impressionist masterpieces was stored when they could no longer fit in the East 66^th Street townhouse.

      Despite his very obvious close ties to the Marcoses, Floirendo was strangely cleared of illegal amassment of wealth by the PCGG.

      If Marcos had his United Labs and Jose Yao-Campos, Imelda had her Pascual Laboratories and Dr. Eleuterio “Teyet” Pascual. Pascual Labs was not so big as United Labs is or was, and while Imelda never muscled in on Pascual Labs in shares or otherwise as it was a family-owned enterprise, nonetheless, she partook of the largesse and profits it generated for its chief owner, Teyet Pascual.

      Among those who benefited from floating in the orbit of Imelda’s glow were the Enriquez-Panlilio families (of Plaza/Sulo Hotel & Restaurant fame) who supplied food for most of Imelda’s events and extravaganzas. With that proximity to power and trust, came access to lucrative contracts. They expanded their hotel empire to the larger Silahis International and are also said to have partnered and fronted for Imelda in the Plaza International Hotel (now the Sofitel); and set up the Puerta Azul luxury resort in Ternate, Cavite, at the expense of disrupting and dislocating the lives of many poor families. They were also into real estate and shipping.

      Perhaps the most controversial, egregious and blatantly obeisant of the Imelda cronies were the Tantocos (Bienvenido and Gliceria) of the Rustan’s Department Store empire. After her relatives, the sleaziest of the Imelda sycophants was “Glecy,” as she was better known in Manila circles.

      Bienvenido and Glecy Tantoco built Rustan’s from a small gift shop in their garage at their old home in San Marcelino Street to the premier retailer in the Philippines in about twenty years’ time, before ShoeMart edged them into the number two spot.

      Like the other cronies, the Tantocos squeezed special deals and legislation from their masters (for which they evaded a lot of taxes) just to line their pockets. For example, a 1974 presidential decree gave them a lucrative franchise to operate tourist duty-free shops at international airports, hotels, and choice commercial centers, in addition to Rustan’s. The decree per-mitted the Tantocos to import luxury goods without paying import taxes.

      They were also active in gold, copper, and precious ore mining ventures, one of which was Eagle Mining Corp. When Bienvenido was president of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (which his wife helped stock with the second-rate and bargain-basement Italian “masterpieces”), more than half of the museum’s original endowment of $595,000 was “loaned” to Eagle Mining. That loan was never repaid.

      Glecy СКАЧАТЬ