DID FUGITIVE TYCOON OPERATE AS FRONT MAN IN MARCOS INVESTMENTS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403650001-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: January 30, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403650001-6
WALL STREET JOURNAL
ARTICLE APPEARED 1 30 January 1986
0) I
ON PAGE
Philippine Tales
Did Fugitive Tycoon
Operate as Front Man
In Marcos Investments?
Dewey Dee Is Said to Link
President to Two Banks;
Saga of a Sugar Company
Golf at the Wack Wack Club
By EDWASD T. POUND
And EDUARDO L.ACHICA
Staff Reporters of THe Wwu. STwssT JOURNAL
MANILA-In 1981, textile tycoon and
banker Dewey Dee fled the Philippines,
leaving behind $85 million in debts and
multiple fraud charges and triggering the
near-collapse of the Philippine financial
system.
Now seeking refuge in Canada, Mr. Dee
has secretly testified to a startling rela-
tionship-that he was a front man for Phil-
ippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos in
personal investments here and around the
world. Mr. Dee has spun his tale in testi-
mony before Canadian Immigration au-
thorities, according to persons familiar
with the proceedings.
Whether or not Mr. Dee's allegations
are true, they go to the heart of charges
ink
that are being lev-
eled so furiously at
Mr. Marcos in his
bid for reelection on
Feb. 7: that crony-
ism, corruption and
hidden wealth have
drained the economy
during the Philip-
pine strong man's
20-year rule.
What is really at
issue is the long his-
tory of what is
known in the Philip-
pines as "crony cap-
italism," Marcos-style, and whether the 68-
year-old ruler and his jet-setting wife,
Imelda, have benefited financially from
the activities of his favored friends and rel-
atives. Over the years, close associates
have dominated entire Industries, such as
sugar, coconut oil and construction. And
Mrs. Marcos, a one-time beauty queen, di-
rects a powerful patronage-dispensing min-
istry when she isn't hobnobbing with celeb-
rities around the world.
Mr. Marcos didn't Invent political favor-
itism here. But "he pushed cronyism to an
extent that nobody ever thought was possi-
ble," says Sixto Roxas 111, once a promi-
nent investment banker in the Philippines
who now lives in California.
The Marcoses have repeatedly denied
any personal profit from their dealings
with friends, and the first family's name
never shows up on public documents re-
lated to purported investments. But inquir-
ies by this newspaper have revealed new
links to possible investments by the Mar-
coses.
The Three Musketeers
One is the secret testimony of Mr. Dee,
the Robert Vesco-like fugitive. Mr. Dee, 42
years old, was known here as one of the
"Three Musketeers," a trio of Filipino-ChI-
nese investors who had powerful political
connections. Mr. Dee is said to have testi-
fled that he invested In banks and other
businesses for. Mr. Marcos, and to have
identified others who acted as Marcos
fronts. Mr. Dee's Vancouver attorney, Ger-
ald G. Goldstein, says in interviews that
his client fled the Philippines because be
felt he had lost Mr. Marcos's confidence.
Mr. Goldstein adds: "I am saying that he
was a nominee for the president in invest-
ments and that some soured, and that he
felt he had to leave to save his life."
The validity of these charges, which are
intended to bolster Mr. Dee's claims for
refugee status in Canada, can't be con-
firmed. But former Philippine business-
men confirm that Mr. Dee was no stranger
to President Marcos. According to one, Mr.
Dee golfed with Mr. Marcos at the Wack
Wack Golf and Country Club here. And an-
other says that Mr. Dee occasionally ap-
peared at state dinners at the Malacanang
Palace, the official presidential resi-
dence.
A more direct link to the Marcds family
involves a U.S. company, Revere Sugar
Corp. of New York,
a cane-sugar refiner
that is now in bank-
ruptcy reorganiza-
tion. Revere Sugar,
which held a lucra-
tive contract to buy
sugar from the Phil-
ippine government,
is controlled by a
close Marcos friend,
Antonio 0. Floiren-
do, who is known as
the "banana king"
because of his vast
banana plantation.
Revere paid $2.9 million in broker's fees on
the sugar purchases to a Hong Kong com-
pany called Thetaventure Limited.
Thetaventure's only listed agent is
Vilma H. Bautista, a close aide to Mrs.
Marcos. Mrs. Bautista, an official in the
Philippine mission to the United Nations,
serves as Mrs. Marcos's secretary when-
ever the first lady travels to New York.
She is known in the New York Filipino
community as the "bag handler for the
Madam," meaning that she handles er-
rands and personal matters for Mrs.
Marcos. Mrs. Bautista couldn't be reached
for comment.
Mr. Marcos, whose presidential pay is
only $5,700, didn't respond to an interview
request from a Wall Street Journal re-
porter who was sent to Manila and didn't
answer questions submitted on Jan. 15 to
one of his Manila aides. But in recent days,
he has granted interviews to several U.S.
television journalists and has gone on the
attack against his opponents. In a recent
interview he said, "The corruption charges
are all false." He said that opposition leg-
islators who tried to impeach him last year
couldn't prove their allegations of corrup-
tion and hidden wealth.
Such allegations are gaining increasing
attention in the election race between Mr.
Marcos and Corazon C. Aquino, the widow
of the slain opposition leader Benigno S.
Aquino Jr. In recent days, Mr. Marcos also
has been buffeted by charges, first raised
in a New York Times article, questioning
his claims that he headed a heroic guer-
rilla unit during World War II. The issue of
corruption and hidden wealth is particu-
larly important to the U.S., which main-
tains vital strategic air and naval bases in
the Philippines, because Washington sup-
plies more than $'200 million annually in
military and economic aid. ials
say that although no U.S. arencv has made
a detailed study of the Marcoses' holdings,
a secret U.S. intelligence report estimates
the first family's wealth at $3 billion.
Congress also is investigating the Mar-
coses' purported U.S. investments. Reports
in the San Jose Mercury News and the Vil-
lage Voice last year suggested that the
first family owns substantial real-estate
holdings in the New York City area. A
House Foreign Affairs subcommittee yes-
terday heard testimony-from two current
officials and one former executive of a
New York real-estate firm-indicating that
the Marcoses have an interest in three
Manhattan commercial properties that the
firm manages: the $60 million Crown
building, the Herald Center shopping mall
valued at more than $40 million, and a
multimillion-dollar office tower at 40 Wall
Street. Previously, a Philippine business-
man gave testimony linking Mrs. Marcos
to ownership of a $20 million estate in Suf-
folk County, N.Y.
Furthermore the staff of the Senate In-
tells ence Comm tee in areast o-
em r on the Philippines, said that cor-
-uuption has become a serious burden on
the economy. The first family and their
avoT red cronies use their positions to
amass great private wealth, much of
which is transferred abroad," draining
cash from the Philippine economy.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403650001-6