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Singapore
court blocks Marcos funds transfer to Philippines
AFP
25
Mar
08
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080324-126191/...
Singapore's
highest court on Monday rejected the Philippine government's
appeal for the transfer of US$25 million in assets allegedly
belonging to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
The
Court of Appeal affirmed an earlier ruling by a Singapore High
Court judge who said the Philippine government must prove that it
owns the bank deposits in the face of competing claims from other
parties.
The rival claimants to the money - now held in
escrow - include human rights victims of Marcos's 21-year rule,
along with four foundations and a corporation alleged to be
Marcos fronts.
Marcos was toppled in a popular revolt in
1986 and died in exile in Hawaii in 1989. He was accused of
plundering billions of dollars from his impoverished country, but
his family denies the accusation.
The Singapore appeal
court said the US$25 million was the remainder of some US$100
million in Marcos funds deposited in Singapore. The rest had been
transferred to the Philippine government in 2003.
The
Philippine government demanded to be given the remaining money
and opposed the rival claims in Singapore's judicial system by
invoking the principle of state immunity in foreign courts.
"The
Court of Appeal held that the doctrine of state immunity did not
apply to the present case at all since the property in dispute
was not in the possession of the sovereign state," it said
in a summary report Monday.
The judgement identified the
four foundations also claiming the disputed money as the Maler
Foundation, Avertina Foundation, Palmy Foundation and Vibur
Foundation. The other claimant is Aguamina Corporation.
More
than 500 civil and criminal suits have been filed worldwide
against members of Marcos's family and his estate.
Despite
years of hearings and investigations, no Marcos relative has been
sent to jail, but human rights victims won a judgement for
damages in a Hawaii court, which forms the basis of their claim
to the assets in Singapore.
Read
also:
Singapore
court denies govt claim over Marcos money
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