Marcos deal in States cost $50M

Press, 21 January 1986, Page 10

Marcos deal in States cost $50M

NZPA-AP San Francisco The Philippines’ President, Mr Ferdinand Marcos, had engaged in a secretive deal with a Californianbased businessman that may have cost his Government more than SUSSO million ($96 million), a newspaper said yesterday. The San Francisco “Examiner” said it had obtained documents that provided evidence that Mr Marcos has been engaged in private financial negotiations in the United States.

The deal had been designed to keep documents embarrassing to Mr Marcos and his family secret and to ensure the co-operation of the businessman, Vicente Chuidian, the newspaper said.

Mr Marcos and his wife, Imelda, were to be secret partners in Mr Chuidian’s holding company, Asian Reliability Company, Inc. said the “Examiner.”

A.R.C.I. was used to buy three Californian companies in the semi-conductor industry. Mr Chuidian had bought the three companies in 1980 with a SUS2S million ($4B million) loan guaranteed by the Philippines’ Government.

He had later asserted that the Marcoses failed to put promised money into A.R.C.I. and refused to repay the loan. The Philippines’ Government accused Mr Chuidian of illegally investing the loan money outside the Philippines, but the probe was later dropped in a settlement with him.

“The story of A.R.C.I. is far more complex and far more interesting than what has appeared in various newspapers’ articles to date,” Mr Chuidian. a Philippines citizen who lives near San Francisco, said yesterday.

Mr Marcos had supervised and approved efforts by subordinates, the newspaper said, that resulted in the settlement with Mr Chuidian, who had allegedly planned to reveal links between Imelda Marcos and others close to the President, and Mr Chuidian’s businesses. In the settlement, the “Examiner” said, Mr Chuidian was given SUSS.3 million ($10,176 million) in cash, his SUS2S million ($4B million) debt to the Philippines’ Government was cancelled, he was given outright ownership of two companies he valued at SUSIS million ($28.8 million), and the Government absorbed SUSB million ($15.36 million) in other debts and costs.

Earlier yesterday from Washington Mr Marcos dismissed reports that his family had hidden away hundreds of millions of dollars in American investments.

In an interview on American television, Mr Marcos denied as “completely false” allegations that he had extensive American real estate holdings. Allegations of hidden financial dealings by the Marcos family in the United States have become the subject of Congressional investigations because of concern that the money may have come from United States aid to the Philippines. But Mr Marcos said that all his financial holdings had been placed in a blind family trust in the Philippines “several years ago.” Stephen Solarz, a New York Democrat and chairman of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, had asserted on Friday that Mr Marcos and Imelda owned several properties in New York City and elsewhere in the United States.