Court rejects govt’s move to recover Marcos wealth

MANILA: The Philippine Supreme Court has rejected efforts to claim almost $1 billion in damages from the estate of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies, saying the government had failed to prove alleged graft related major infrastructure projects. The court made the decision in April but it was only made public on Tuesday. The government had alleged that Marcos, several former government officials and businessmen had accumulated ill-gotten wealth through the Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines (CDCP), which won state-funded infrastructure projects. Marcos ruled the Philippines for 20 years, during which time he, his family and cronies amassed an estimated $10 billion in ill-gotten wealth, according to the findings of a commission created after his ouster in a military-backed civilian uprising in 1986.