Jovito Salonga, a former Senate President and first PCGG chair, yesterday gave current PCGG Chair Magdangal Elma 10 days to revamp the agreements so that the government and nearly 10,000 martial law victims would be the bonafide claimants to the money held in escrow--instead of five dummy foundations of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Salonga made his threat in his capacity as chair of Kilosbayan, which represents the heirs of Edgar Jopson, a student activist who was killed by the military during martial law. Jopson's heirs are among the human rights victims who filed a class suit against the Marcos estate and won $2.3 billion in damages awarded by a US court.

''If the PCGG, under your leadership, does not wish to act to cause the revamp or revision of these escrow agreements to benefit our oppressed people, we shall take the liberty of seeking the necessary remedy elsewhere,'' Salonga told Elma in his 18-page letter.

The former PCGG chair did not specify what remedy Kilosbayan was planning to seek, but he hinted that he would heed the advice given by two Swiss lawyers who suggested that he bring the case to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.

''It was the Swiss authorities who took the unprecedented step of freezing the Marcos Swiss deposits in 1986. They remain frozen up to now,'' he said.

''This is why we must get the conformity of the Swiss authorities, through their duly authorized agent, to a genuine escrow agreement, by scrapping the Marcos foundations which the Swiss Supreme Court rightly condemned as no more than the dummies of Marcos and which, therefore, have no right to pose as bonafide claimants.''

Out of reach

Two of those dummy foundations have cornered the bulk of the $590 million, Salonga said.

The foundations, used ''by the Marcoses to hide the kickbacks they earned from the Japanese reparations in the 1970s'' remain the active claimants to the money under current terms of escrow.

As of Dec. 31, 1998, the deposits in the accounts of the five Marcos dummy foundations totalled $589.3 million, Salonga said.

He said the escrow deposits were beyond the reach of the human rights victims and the government--both claimants to the money--because of ''spurious'' escrow agreements.

Hundreds of millions

Salonga said the ''escrow consolidated statement of account'' as of Dec. 31, 1998 showed that Avertina Foundation had $404 million in its account while the Aguamina Corp. had $131.7 million.

Salonga reiterated his charge that the accounts being held by three other Marcos foundations came from ''intelligence funds'' which had allegedly been used to finance certain overseas trips of former first lady Imelda Marcos.

Salonga said that the three foundations were holding, on behalf of the Marcoses, a total of $53.16 million in deposits.

There is $26.73 million in the Palmy Foundation account; $5.47 million in the Vibur Foundation account; and $20.95 million in the Maler Foundation account, according to Salonga.

Diplomatic notes

''A claimant who is not in control or possession of the funds when it entered into the (escrow) agreement on Aug. 14, 1995 cannot be the source of escrow funds,'' Salonga said.

Salonga said that the Marcoses started stashing away public funds in Swiss banks as early as 1968, when the late strongman was barely two years in office.

''The Marcoses started transferring as much as $200,000 in public funds beginning March 20, 1968, making the accounts grow up to $1.5 million in 1981 alone,'' said Salonga.

Elma had earlier written Salonga to argue that there was no need to revise the escrow agreements because the conditions set by the Swiss authorities for the release of the money had already been accepted by the Philippine government, as evidenced by diplomatic notes sent by the Philippine Embassy in Berne.

The conditions: The government must obtain a judgment from the courts and also satisfy the compensation claims of the human rights victims.

'Not good enough'

''This is not a good enough answer,'' Salonga retorted. ''The diplomatic notes only bind the Philippines--they do not bind the other litigants, such as the Marcoses, nor do they benefit the thousands of human rights victims.''

Salonga said all he wanted was for Elma to cause the revamp and strengthening of the escrow agreements "for the sake of the landless farmers--the main beneficiaries from the proceeds of the ill-gotten wealth and the thousands of human rights victims who eminently deserve the protection of their government."

By Christine Herrera