Marcos ordered
in to court

The late Philippine leader’s
son will visit Hawaii
in February

The son of the late Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has been ordered to appear in federal court in Honolulu during an upcoming goodwill visit to Hawaii.

The order allows Ferdinand "Bong Bong" Marcos Jr., governor of the Ilocos Norte province, to travel freely to Hawaii despite contempt of court charges pending against him and his mother, former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, in the United States since 1995.

Marcos is traveling to Hawaii Feb. 1-8 to meet with Filipino communities here and sign a sister state-province agreement with Gov. Linda Lingle.

U.S. District Judge Manuel Real's order, dated Wednesday, requires that Marcos "make no public statements, appearances or press conferences" relating to any pending litigation. His court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 7.

Real is overseeing the distribution of assets to a class-action of 9,539 Filipinos who won a $2 billion judgment against the Marcos estate in 1995.

Imelda Marcos and her son also were found in contempt of court that year after Real ruled they violated a court order freezing their assets. They have been subject to a fine of $100,000 a day since June 30, 1995.

Appeals have dragged court proceedings out over the past decade, and to date none of the victims has received any money. The original award has grown to $3.7 billion with interest.

Last month, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a previous ruling by Real freezing assets of the late Philippine president that are being held in the Philippines and other banks around the world.

Ownership of the funds has been disputed since they were discovered in 1986, soon after Ferdinand Marcos was forced from power and fled to Hawaii. At the time, the deposits totaled about $356 million but have almost doubled from interest and later investments.

Since then, more funds believed to belong to Marcos have been found in banks elsewhere.

Those funds include $40 million that has been held in an escrow account because of competing claims of ownership by the Marcos estate, the Philippine government and the human rights victims.

Real in July ordered that the $40 million be put toward the class-action judgment awarded by a Honolulu jury that found Marcos responsible for summary executions, disappearances and torture during his 14-year reign under martial law.

Attorneys for Arelma Corp., a Panamanian financial company set up by Marcos that originally held the $40 million, appealed that ruling.

Arguments in the appeal are scheduled before the 9th Circuit in March.

Ferdinand Marcos and his family fled to Hawaii after he was toppled in the "people power" revolt of February 1986. He died in Honolulu in 1989 without admitting any wrongdoing.