A video on Facebook (FB) erroneously claimed that three jewelry collections seized by the Philippine government from the Marcos family were “gifts” given by other countries. The Supreme Court (SC) says otherwise.
On May 29, a short video on the jewelry sets of the Marcoses appeared on FB with the title: “Regalo yun sa Pamilya Marcos kaya walang resibo (It [the jewels] was a gift to the Marcoses, that’s why there’s no receipt).”
The first half of the video showed two 2016 news reports published by GMA News that featured opinions of 2016 vice-presidential candidates on the seized Marcos jewels. President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was also running for the post then.
The latter half of the video showed several clips of the late ousted President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his wife Imelda Marcos during a 1968 state visit to Thailand, where the couple received gifts from their host.
The High Court later came out with a ruling on one jewelry collection that declared it unlawfully acquired. Three sets were confiscated from the Marcoses – the Malacanang, Roumeliotes, and Hawaii collections.
In 2017, the SC dismissed an appeal to reverse the Sandiganbayan ruling to seize the Malacañang Collection. The High Tribunal also said the Marcoses failed to prove they came into the jewels legally, so “the prima facie presumption that they were unlawfully acquired prevails.”
“They [the Marcoses] allege that they were denied due process by not being given any opportunity to prove their lawful acquisition of the Malacañang Collection. This allegation cannot be given credence for being utterly baseless,” the High Court added.
Read the full story on VERA Files Fact Check.
