The Palace on Friday insisted that President Rodrigo Duterte is not lawyering for the Marcoses over their supposed ill-gotten wealth.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo made the remark days after the Chief Executive raised doubts on the late dictator’s questionable affluence allegedly stolen from state coffers.
“They do not understand the point of view of the President. The President’s point of view is with respect to other billions which have not been proven yet. First of all, how can you prove that if we don’t have that amount of money?” Panelo told reporters in a Palace press briefing.
“Now, the question is, where in the heavens name did the Marcos got so much wealth? They’re saying some $400 billion were stolen. Huh? $400 billion? We don’t have that much money,” he added.
In his speech on Tuesday, Duterte, known to have friendly ties with the Marcoses, said the accusations against them remains unproven.
“Until now, you have not proven anything except to sequester and sell. You are not even sure if that really belongs to Marcos,” the President said, drawing flak anew from victims of human rights abuses during the martial law regime.
For Panelo, the President was “truthful” when he expressed doubts over the multi-billion worth of money claimed to have been stolen from the government, which, according to him, was “non-existent.”