Cosandey met with President Estrada in Malacañang to check if the conditions set by the Swiss government for the ''unfreezing'' of the funds were fulfilled, the sources said.

Unless these conditionalities were met, the PNB account would remain under the names of Marcos foundations and under the ''custodia legis'' of the Swiss authorities, which were allowed to invest the money in high-yield securities, notes and bonds, the Swiss court ruling stated.

The Marcoses and the government have already agreed to give at least $150 million to the 10,000 human rights victims to satisfy the first of two conditions required by Swiss Federal Supreme Court.

The indemnification of the human rights claimants, whose $2 billion award for damages has been affirmed by the US Supreme Court, was a prime consideration by the Swiss high court in its decision issued in December 1997 and affirmed by Cosandey's 1995 ruling.

President Estrada yesterday said he wanted human rights claimants to get their share of the Marcos loot. He was responding to the proposal by Rod Domingo, lawyer for some of the human rights claimants, that 30 percent or about $174 million be granted in advance of the government and the Marcos family compromise settlement.

Interest

Marcos's $580 million Swiss deposits, which were placed in escrow at the PNB on April 14, 1998 now stand at $590 million and continues to earn interest, the Presidential Commission on Good Government disclosed yesterday.

There has been confusion about the whereabouts of the Marcos funds, but that it is earning interest means that the Marcos assets are here pursuant to the escrow agreements signed in August 1995 between the PCGG and the PNB, according to the PCGG Chair Magdangal Elma.

This disputed allegations made by former PCGG chair Jovito Salonga that the money might not have been transferred to the PNB.

Elma said the transfer was made possible on April 14, 1998 after the Swiss Federal Supreme Court upheld the ''validity and legality'' of the escrow agreements, which were first examined by Court Magistrate Peter Cosandey before these were submitted to the high court for approval.

''In short, the escrow agreements were binding and were not spurious,'' the PCGG chair said, referring to the claims made by former Senate President Jovito Salonga that the contracts were ''outdated and illusory.''

Other condition

The other condition is an ''enforceable judgment'' of a Philippine court in a forfeiture case that would determine if the Marcos assets were ill-gotten or not. This condition is what is being ''fine-tuned'' by the Marcoses and the government, the sources said.

Solicitor General Ricardo Galvez yesterday told the Supreme Court that the Sandiganbayan maintained ''control over the funds,'' and that any agreement to release the money from the PNB would have to be approved by that court.

The Marcoses have already asked the Sandiganbayan to dismiss the main forfeiture case, Civil Case No. 0141.

Galvez said the Swiss authority was confined to ordering the freeze of the accounts for transmittal to the Philippines to await the final judgment of the Sandiganbayan or any competent court,'' he said.

Everything else, including the agreement on the escrow account, should be approved by the Sandiganbayan which had yet to rule on the nature of the Marcos assets tagged by the government as ill-gotten wealth, government lawyers said yesterday.

Even the high tribunal had a say in the matter, he said.

In his 16-page ''compliance'' submitted to the tribunal, Galvez said the Sandiganbayan's jurisdiction over the Marcos funds was spelled out in the decisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court dated Dec. 10 and 19, 1997 and Jan. 27, 1998.

 ''The Republic and the Presidential Commission on Good Government and (the Marcos) foundations acting together and in writing do not have effective control over the funds,'' he said in his manifestation submitted to the court.

The Marcos Swiss deposits were found in Credit Suisse and Swiss Bank Corp. under the names of 12 foundations, which were acknowledged by the Swiss court as ''dummies'' formed by Marcos.

The 12 foundations were identified as Aguamina Foundation, Gladiator Establishment, Rosaly's Foundation, Arelma Foundation, Avertina Foundation, Vibur Foundation, Maler Establishment, Maler Foundation, Mabari Establishment, Caesar Foundation, Palmy Foundation, and Pretorian Foundation.

Due process

 While the Swiss tribunal conceded that the Marcos money were ''criminally acquired,'' Elma said, it wanted the foundations and the Marcoses to be accorded with due process of law.

Even though such opponent (the Marcos foundations) is nothing but a legal construction to hide the true ownership to the assets of the Marcos family, they nevertheless are entitled to a hearing as far as the proceedings are concerned with accounts which are nominally theirs,'' Elma quoted the Swiss high court's decision on Dec. 10, 1997.

He also disputed Salonga's assertion that the Marcos deposits were placed in the name of six Marcos foundations when President Estrada took his oath on June 30, 1998.

Elma said the Marcos deposits were in the name of these foundations since 1986 when the petitions for International Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (IMAC) were filed by the Philippine government with Cosandey in Zurich.

Cosandey, finding the 1995 escrow agreements as valid, issued a favorable decision ordering the ''early restitution of the deposits'' in the name of the foundations to escrow accounts in the Philippines, court records show.

Despite the appeal made by the foundations, Elma said, Cosandey's order was affirmed by the Swiss tribunal in its decisions of Dec. 10 and 19, 1997, and Jan. 8 and March 12, 1998 and the funds were transferred the following month.

Wise guys

 ''We can't understand this anymore; there are too many wise guys,'' the President told reporters in a chance interview at the Land Registration Authority's 96th anniversary yesterday.

He did not categorically say he would push the 30 percent share proposed by Domingo.

''I want that their share be given at once that is why I am pushing for a settlement so that we can immediately get the $150 million that we can give to the victims of human rights,'' he said.

By Donna S. Cueto, Christine Herrera and Juliet Labog