Are $5.3-M Imelda jewels still in Customs vaults?
GOTCHA by Jarius Bondoc 07/21/2001 This is something for Haydee Yorac, new Presidential Commission on Good Government chairman, to look into. A metal box containing $5.3 million worth of jewelry should be lying somewhere in the vaults of the Bureau of Customs inside the Bangko Sentral compound. I said “should be” because that is what Customs records state. But whether the box is still there, or if the valuable contents are intact, is a matter for PCGG to ascertain. For, sometime during his presidential term, Joseph Estrada ordered two Customs officers to meet former First Lady Imelda Marcos at her Makati condo. He gave them specific instructions to accommodate her because “she only wants a few pieces (of jewelry) back, those that have sentimental value for her.” Soon afterwards, one of the two officers was named deputy collector, with a promise of further promotion to Customs deputy commissioner had Estrada not resigned at the height of a people-power revolt last January. But that’s ge
