"We're hoping for a breakthrough, especially in the light of the negotiations between the Marcoses and the government," Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said yesterday, referring to preliminary talks on a possible out-of-court settlement dividing the Marcos estate.

Pimentel Jr., co-chair of an inquiry into a portion of the hidden wealth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, yesterday said he had received the faxed request for the private meeting from lawyer Reynaldo Fajardo, who described himself as a spokesman for the former first lady.

Ms Marcos revealed to the Inquirer late last year that she was planning to sue crony "trustees" who refused to return P500 billion worth of assets held on behalf of her husband to the Marcos heirs.

Her claims rocked business and political circles, and led to a Senate inquiry co-chaired by Pimentel Jr. and Sen. Raul Roco.

Pimentel Jr., chair of the blue ribbon committee, surmised that Ms Marcos's request for a meeting was prompted by his previous statement that the Senate would help the Marcoses recover their wealth if Ms Marcos "cooperated" by identifying the "trustees" in question.

Ms Marcos had identified several of these in the string of Inquirer stories, but she later refused to do the same at a Senate hearing.

Pimentel Jr. said he was inclined to agree to meet privately with Ms Marcos, and that the meeting would be held "outside of" Senate hearings, with other senators present.

As this developed, victims of human rights abuses said they wanted Swiss authorities, and not the Estrada administration, to hold "for safekeeping" $580 million in Marcos deposits in an "escrow account" at the Philippine National Bank.

The amount--claimed by the government, the Marcoses and torture victims--is still in Switzerland.

Human rights lawyer Romeo Capulong explained that due to the terms of escrow imposed by Swiss authorities, "instruments of investments"--not the actual $580 million--were transferred to the escrow account at the PNB in January 1998.

Capulong made his remarks in response to former Senate President Jovito Salonga's charge that the escrow agreements were "illusory contracts" that were "merely anticipatory, speculative (and) incomplete."

'The money's here'

But President Estrada yesterday denied Salonga's claim and said the dollars were in the PNB.

"How can (the escrow agreements) be invalid when (the money) is already here in our country, in the PNB? The money is here now and is earning interest. How can he say it's invalid?" Mr. Estrada asked.

He met yesterday with Peter Cosanday, a Swiss executive trustee who had worked for the transfer of the Marcos Swiss deposits to the country.

Mr. Estrada said he had thanked Cosanday for his role, adding Malacañang would "see if there was a need" to appoint Cosanday as a government consultant in the recovery of the wealth allegedly plundered by the Marcoses.

Beyond reach

The rights victims, who have a legal claim to a portion of the money, accused the administration of "a lack of transparency" in ongoing settlement talks with the Marcoses.

"We are inclined to believe that the Estrada administration is in collusion with the Marcoses as evidenced by the ongoing secret negotiations on the compromise agreement between them," said Capulong, counsel of martial law victims belonging to the Samahan ng mga Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya.

"The rights victims are worried that there is a deliberate effort not to consult them and that soon the money will be beyond their reach," Capulong said.

Swiss management

He said the rights claimants had so far been satisfied with the way Swiss authorities have managed and invested the money.

"The rights victims have full confidence in the Swiss authorities, but not in the government, because the latter does not keep its promises to the human rights victims and in fact, gives preferential treatment to the Marcoses," the lawyer said.

Authorities froze $356 million of the Marcos Swiss bank deposits in December 1995, Capulong said. The figure grew to $580 million after the funds were invested in "high-yield securities, bonds and notes" by two Swiss banks—Credit Suisse and the Swiss Banking Corp.--on behalf of the three claimants.

Conditional release

The money remains in "custodia legis" of Swiss authorities pending the fulfillment of certain conditions governing the release of the amount.

One of the conditions is that the Philippine government must obtain a final judgment on Civil Case No. 0141 or the main forfeiture case against the Marcoses.

Another condition is that the government must satisfy the compensation claims of the rights victims.

"For as long as the victims are kept in the dark and are not consulted, we cannot trust government officials tasked to negotiate with the Marcoses," Capulong said.

By Lynda T. Jumilla and Christine Herrera, with a report from Juliet L. Javellana