MANILA // Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos said on Tuesday that she will have a merry Christmas thanks to a court ordering the return of one of the sprawling mansions the government seized after her husband was deposed.
The Supreme Court ruled late on Monday that the government agency created to recover billions of dollars allegedly looted by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife used a defective order to seize the beachfront, 42-hectare estate on Leyte Island.
The ruling came 24 years after a nonviolent "people power" uprising ousted Marcos and the government sequestered most of their property. Imelda Marcos and her children are seeking the return of the assets.
Officials allege the sprawling property was acquired through Marcos's looting of public money while in power. Imelda Marcos has long denied the allegation, saying the mansion is a family property where her father was born.
An aide said she broke into tears upon learning of the court decision.
"This is indeed a very happy Christmas, and I will try to go to Leyte before this holiday season is over," the former first lady said.
Imelda Marcos will forever be remembered for the dazzling jewels and 1,220 pairs of shoes she left behind in the presidential palace. They also are among the assets seized by the government and sought by the Marcoses.
Marcos and his associates allegedly amassed up to $10 billion in ill-gotten wealth during his 21 years in power. The Presidential Commission on Good Government has so far identified around $6.5 billion and recovered cash and assets totaling around $1.97 billion.
Marcos, who declared martial law in 1972, ruled with an iron fist, imprisoning dissidents and stifling freedoms. He died in exile in Hawaii in 1989 without being brought to trial.
Imelda Marcos returned to the Philippines in 1991, followed later by her children, and re-entered politics. She was elected in May to the House of Representatives, her second time in Congress. Her son Bongbong was elected a senator and daughter Imee a provincial governor.
Despite some 900 civil and criminal cases she has faced in Philippine courts – ranging from tax evasion to embezzlement and corruption – she has emerged relatively unscathed and has never served prison time. All but a handful of the cases have been dismissed for lack of evidence and a few convictions were overturned on appeal.
Marcos, 81, says the Leyte property – including a 17-room house, a golf course, swimming pool, cottages and a pavilion – belonged to her family long before her husband was born.
Presidential commission spokesman Nick Suarez said the government will likely appeal.
The Supreme Court said the ruling will not necessarily be fatal to the government's main ill-gotten wealth case and state prosecutors can still argue that the property was acquired illegally.
The court ruled on the basis that the seizure order was signed only by lawyers. It said under the presidential commission's rules, at least two commissioners should have signed the sequestration order.
How Alia's experiment will help humans get to Mars
Alia’s winning experiment examined how genes might change under the stresses caused by being in space, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity.
Her samples were placed in a machine on board the International Space Station. called a miniPCR thermal cycler, which can copy DNA multiple times.
After the samples were examined on return to Earth, scientists were able to successfully detect changes caused by being in space in the way DNA transmits instructions through proteins and other molecules in living organisms.
Although Alia’s samples were taken from nematode worms, the results have much bigger long term applications, especially for human space flight and long term missions, such as to Mars.
It also means that the first DNA experiments using human genomes can now be carried out on the ISS.
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Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
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Company name: Jaib
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Co-founders: Fouad Jeryes and Sinan Taifour
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Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
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UAE Rugby finals day
Games being played at The Sevens, Dubai
2pm, UAE Conference final
Dubai Tigers v Al Ain Amblers
4pm, UAE Premiership final
Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Jebel Ali Dragons
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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