Also up for sale are sequestered ''B''shares in the Manila Electric Co., worth P2.25 billion and regarded as the most valuable of the assets seized by the PCGG.

Registered under the Meralco Foundation Inc. and formerly controlled by the Romualdezes, they are traded at a premium on the stock market.

The government hopes the move will boost its programs in the agriculture sector, badly crippled by the devastating El Niño phenomenon and the currency crisis.

The former first lady's jewelry collection, seized in Honolulu, consists mostly of rubies and diamonds, and is being kept in the vaults of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas along with other artifacts. The collection is estimated to be worth P600 million.

The PCGG expects to raise P1 billion from the auction of the collection together with seven sequestered Marcos mansions in Baguio City.

But that's just the beginning.

 ''An estimated P30 billion additional fund for land reform is expected to come from proceeds of the privatization and sale of surrendered and sequestered assets,'' the PCGG said in a statement.

Awaiting approval

 The anti-graft agency said it was only awaiting the approval of the Committee on Privatization, chaired by Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu, for the assets--formerly controlled by Marcos cronies--to be auctioned off this year.

The privatization is in line with a presidential directive issued last year to raise badly needed funds for the cash-strapped government.

The PCGG's priority list of assets for privatization includes the sequestered shares in Meralco, the country's biggest distributor of electricity, and in the Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc. Priority assets also include prime real estate property and Ms Marcos' jewelry and artifacts collection.

On the list, as well, are government shares in other top corporations, as President Estrada announced they would be in his first State of the Nation Address last July 27.

These include shares in the National Power Corp., Petron, Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp., Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corp., Food Terminal Inc., Philippine Oil Co.-Energy Development Corp., and the IBC-13 and RPN-9 television networks.

The proceeds from the sale, the PCGG said, would be tapped to pursue the government's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

Come and get 'em

 In 1998 alone, the PCGG said, a total of P1.2 billion from the sale of sequestered Marcos assets was turned over to the national treasury.

The amount brought to P22.2 billion the total contribution of the PCGG to the CARP program since 1986--not counting 1.056 million hectares of recovered lands distributed to farmer-beneficiaries, the PCGG said.

To be put up for auction this year are the ''B'' shares in Meralco, 10.2 percent of equity in ETPI worth P200 million, P900 million worth of RPN-9 shares, about P2 billion worth of IBC-13 shares, and the Marcos mansions and the jewelry.

The shares in ETPI, RPN-9 and IBC-13 were surrendered by Roberto Benedicto in 1986; and the prime lots by Jose Yao Campos, after both separately entered into compromise agreements with the government to elude criminal and civil suits.

The PCGG also forecasts that the sale of an 18-hectare prime property in Mandaluyong City will fetch a pretty sum because the lot is located in the heart of the Ortigas business district.