BSP and the Marcos jewels

Anent your editorial, “Economic team: So far so good” (5/30/22), it bears recalling that Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s father also got the best minds supposedly to help him run the government. At the end of the day, the Marcos family ran the country to the ground and into the abyss of indebtedness. Imelda Marcos’ wasteful, wanton, and profligate ways were said to have added more to all the unspeakable ire of the Filipino people.

For example, Felipe Medalla, touted as an upright and brilliant technocrat, is being considered to head the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) where much of Imelda’s personal treasures worth millions in dollars have all these years been kept in the vaults there. President Duterte once ordered the sale of her collection of jewelry worth about P700 million, so the people can benefit from all that “ill-gotten wealth” (“Duterte gives go signal to sell Marcos jewelry,” 5/31/2019). Apparently, the BSP, headed by another “brilliant” technocrat, Benjamin Diokno, just dismissed the President’s order as nothing more than lip service.

The question that now begs to be answered is, would Medalla have the balls to say no to any direct command from Malacañang to return all those treasures back to Imelda? All these hosannahs about President-elect Marcos Jr.’s choices of hangers-on to “guide” his governance may have been sung too soon. Just like most of the “brilliant” technocrats during Marcos Sr.’s regime, they simply looked the other way to keep the obscene salaries, perks, and privileges that went with their jobs. Public service, anyone?

SCARLET S. SYTANGCO
[email protected]