P 1.2 billion worth of Marcos assets auctioned off

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has been unable to contribute to privatization revenues since last year up to April of this year, but the agency tasked to dispose of Marcos ill-gotten wealth could add about P1.2 billion to the government’s nontax take this month.

John Agbayani, chair of the PCGG, told the Inquirer on Friday that the agency this week would determine how much was raised from the Marcos-related assets it auctioned off last week.

Among the seized properties—forming part of ill-gotten wealth of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, his family, as well as cronies—that the PCGG tried to sell on May 26 included a P789.2-million, 2,886-square meter (sq m) property along Edsa in Mandaluyong City; nine lots in Tagaytay City, whose floor prices ranged between P1.4 million and P1.9 million; a 46,688-sq m property in Bacolod City worth at least P324.6 million; and a 5,952-sq m lot in Naga City priced at a minimum of P57.1 million.

On May 27, the PCGG auctioned off a 1,000-sq m meter property in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro, for at least P6.1 million; two lots in Caloocan City, both with floor prices of P1.9-million each; as well as a 300-sq m property in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, which the agency offered at a minimum of P930,000.

Also on Friday, the PCGG tried to sell P800 million worth of shares of stock in Makati Sports Club Inc.

In recent years, privatization’s contribution to government revenues had been dwindling—the government wanted to raise P500 million from privatization annually, but its take dropped to a record-low P320.9 million last year.

The latest Bureau of the Treasury data on Friday showed that privatization proceeds from January to April amounted to P20 million, up 144 percent from P8.2 million during the first four months of last year.

In April, the Department of Finance (DOF)-attached Privatization and Management Office (PMO) collected P10.5 million in lease rental, bringing the four-month total to P18.6 million.

Also last month, the PMO generated P1.4 million in other income, such that the agency contributed all of the privatization revenues so far this year.

Last week, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the DOF’s proposed fiscal consolidation and resource mobilization plan aimed at generating more revenues to repay ballooning COVID-19 debts was not heavy on privatization because “the assets that we have left are not that much anymore.”

But Dominguez said the incoming administration of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. may consider—as a “definite possibility”—closing down the country’s main gateway Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), and then selling the vast tract of land where it stood to raise more revenues—estimated by tycoon Ramon S. Ang to be as much as P2 trillion. The Duterte administration itself had been looking into selling the Naia property as early as 2016, but Dominguez said they were still awaiting developments in the new airports in Clark and Bulacan.