NEEDS CONTEXT: Bongbong Marcos Claims He Never Saw Gold In His Life

Claim: Presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said in interviews that he had never seen gold in his life when asked about the supposed source of his family’s wealth.

In an interview on One News/One PH and Go Negosyo’s KandidaTalks to be aired on March 21, Marcos reiterated that people could not find the fabled tons of gold because they don’t exist.

He noted that the gold bars supposedly came from various sources and used in many ways. “Wala pa ‘kong nakikitang gold sa buong buhay ko, kaya nagugulat kami kapag napag-uusapan 'yan. At kung saan-saan daw nanggaling, kung saan-saan daw ginagamit.”

“Kung talagang meron niyan, tatlumput-limang taon na kaming...wala 'yung father ko ---

nasaan na 'yung gold na sinasabi nila? (If that truly exists, we, my father had not been in [power] for 35 years, where’s the gold that they are talking about?) Siguro naman tone-toneladang sinasabi nila, hanggang ngayon hindi pa nila mahanap, hindi nila mahanap because it doesn’t exist,” Marcos said.

In an interview with One PH’s “Sa Totoo Lang” on Jan. 24, Marcos also laughed off the urban legend connecting his family to the mythical Yamashita treasure and the Tallano gold.

Marcos told Sa Totoo Lang that he had never seen a single bar of gold in his life.

“Pero sa buong buhay ko hindi pa ako nakakakita ng gold na ganyan...Marami akong kilala kung saan-saan naghuhukay pero ako wala pa akong nakitang kahit anong klaseng gold na sinasabi nila,” Marcos said. “Baka may alam sila, sabihan ako, kailangan ko ‘yung gold. Wala pa ‘ko nakikitang gold,” he added.

Rating: Needs context

Facts:

On March 7, Rappler reported that a 33-year-old Marcos told late Philippine Daily Inquirer journalist Kristina Luz a different story during her coverage of the trial of his mother, Imelda, in New York.

PDI’s April 19, 1990 issue featured Luz’s article based on her interview with Marcos, who was then in exile. Luz asked Marcos about “all this business about gold and shiploads of it,” and “How come you are talking about it more openly now?”

“Ah, only I know where it is and how to get to it,” Marcos replied.

Rappler obtained newspaper clippings and court pleadings to fact-check Marcos’ claim that he had never seen gold in his life, and these records show he was either lying to the media and the court back then, or is misleading the public now.

In the same Rappler report, Marcos informed the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan in 2007 that his father’s wealth came from trading “precious metals more specifically gold.”

He used it to try and win back the Ortigas Payanig property in Pasig from the national government.

“Income from legitimately-owned property includes income from trading of precious metals from the years 1946 to 1954,” Marcos said in a complaint-in-intervention filed before the Sandiganbayan on June 13, 2007 in Civil Case No. 0093.

CC No. 0093 involves two parcels of land in the Ortigas Center with a combined size of 18.5 hectares that Marcos’ father and namesake, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, supposedly forcibly took from Ortigas & Company in 1968, or three years after winning as president. Marcos Sr. used his crony Jose Campos to get from the Ortigas firm the documents that would turn over ownership.

After the 1986 people power revolution ousted Marcos and forced the family into exile, Campos voluntarily turned over this property to the government. The Ortigas firm had wanted it back but in 2020, the Sandiganbayan dismissed Ortigas’ petition, retaining the ownership of the government through the Presidential Commission on Good Government, Rappler reported.

It was Ortigas & Company that filed the civil case, but Marcos Jr. wanted the property for himself and his family. In 2007, he filed a motion to be able to join the claim.

Marcos Jr. attached the dying deposition of one Constante Rubio, who said he was a close associate of the dictator, and that “FM (Marcos Sr.) took me into his confidence and asked me to assist him in his business of trading metals, more specifically gold,” according to the excerpt of the deposition that Marcos Jr. put into his motion.

“The foregoing statements made by Mr. Rubio, who had personal knowledge of the late President’s business dealings even before he ran for a seat in Congress, proves that he had the means to finance his investments and acquisitions,” Marcos Jr. said.

On June 4, 2007, Marcos Jr.’s Ilocos lawyer Erme Labayog attended a hearing at the Laoag City Regional Trial Court to perpetuate Rubio’s testimony. Nine days later, Marcos Jr., through Manila lawyers, attached the testimony to their Sandiganbayan pleading to claim Payanig. They failed, as the First Division junked his claim July that same year, according to records.

Reacting to his previous interview with Luz, Marcos Jr. said during his KandidaTalks interview that, “I said you shouldn’t kill me because I’m the only one who knows where the gold is.”

Marcos Jr. claimed that the PDI picked the quotes that suited its story.

“Namili sila eh kung ano iko-quote nila eh, sinasabi [ko] hindi, huwag niyo ako papatayin, kasi ako lang may alam kung saan ‘yung ginto,” Marcos Jr. said, laughing.

According to confessed Marcos crony Baltazar Aquino, Marcos Sr. accumulated billions of dollars that were deposited in Swiss banks through “commissions” or kickbacks from shady deals with Japanese suppliers.

In a report by Today newspaper on Dec. 23, 1998, reporter Estrella Torres wrote that this testimony belied the claim of Imelda that Marcos Sr. built a fortune in gold trading that enabled him to buy billions of dollars worth of properties and other assets during his two-decade rule.

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