N.Y. Court to Allow Manila Lawyers to Query Marcos, Wife on Holdings

A New York State judge said Wednesday that he will allow lawyers for the new government in the Philippines to try to interview former President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his wife, Imelda, regarding their purported New York real estate holdings.

“OK with me,” said State Supreme Court Judge Elliott Wilk as he indicated that he would grant a motion by lawyers representing President Corazon Aquino’s government to seek depositions from the Marcoses and several of their aides currently in exile in Hawaii.

Lawyers for the Aquino government said Wilk’s promised ruling was an early victory in their fledgling legal battle to recoup as much as $10 billion that they contend the Marcos family removed during their 20-year reign in Manila.

Wilk cautioned, however, that he has “no control” over Marcos and cannot force him to comply. Morton Stavis, an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights who represented the Aquino government, said he will apply to a federal judge in Hawaii this week for a court order to gain access to the Marcoses.

Now in Honolulu

The former president, his wife and family fled Manila on Feb. 25 and are staying in guest quarters at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu.

In Washington, meanwhile, Customs Service spokesman Dennis Murphy said the U.S. government is willing to respond to questions from the Manila government about items that Marcos and his entourage took from the Philippines to Hawaii aboard two U.S. Air Force C-141 cargo jets.

So far, the only formal request received concerns 22 crates filled with Filipino peso notes worth about $1.2 million at the current exchange rate. Murphy said a detailed inventory of the currency, including serial numbers, will be sent to the U.S. District Court in Honolulu as soon as it is completed, probably on Friday.

“If the Philippine government requests some information beyond the currency, the Customs Service is prepared to provide it through the proper channels,” Murphy said.

State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb added: “We are in touch with the government of the Philippines on these issues. We have told the Philippines that we will provide them with additional information on the contents of the plane, and that we will, of course, seek to cooperate with the government of the Philippines as we handle these matters in accordance with various applicable laws.”

Need Accurate List

Philippine lawyers need an accurate list of Marcos’ property if they hope to press their claims that the former president’s wealth was obtained by corruption and should be returned to the Philippines.

The Customs Service announced earlier this week that it had impounded the contents of the cargo jets with the exception of clothing and other modest personal items pending action by the courts to determine ownership.

Although Murphy declined to disclose the value of the impounded goods, he said estimates ranging from $5 million to $10 million “were far more realistic” than earlier reports that put the total above $100 million.

The Marcoses were not represented in New York during the hourlong hearing in a crowded second-floor courtroom in lower Manhattan. The Supreme Court is the trial-level court in New York.

Asked by reporters about the likelihood of interviewing Marcos, Stavis laughed and said, “We’ll try. I’m just a lawyer, not a prophet.”

Freeze Order Retained

Wilk also left in place until March 19 a court order freezing the sale, transfer or other financial dealings involving four large Manhattan buildings and Lindenmere, a 14-acre Long Island estate linked to the Marcoses.

Wilk first had granted the temporary restraining order when lawyers representing the Aquino government visited his apartment Sunday night and said Marcos’ New York agents were attempting to transfer title to several properties.

City records show that a corporation called New York Land Ltd., owned by brothers and real estate moguls Joseph and Ralph Bernstein, filed papers to take title to three buildings on Feb. 24, the day before Marcos fled Manila. Wilk’s order froze that transfer before it could be made final.

Michael Silverberg, the Bernsteins’ lawyer, said he could provide no details as to the transfer of Herald Center, a high-rise shopping center, 40 Wall Street and the Crown Building on West 57th Street.

“I’ve been in the case for two days and I’m not in the position of ascertaining what the facts are,” he said in an interview.

Wilk refused requests to force the Aquino government to put up a cash bond, or to dismiss the temporary restraining order. At one point, he asked attorney Gerald Walpin how his client--a Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, company called Ancor Holding N.V. that is the apparent owner of Lindenmere--would be hurt by continuing the order.

“I have some knowledge of how property is sold,” Wilk said. “It doesn’t happen in 20 minutes. If it does happen in 20 minutes, perhaps that’s why the restraint should remain.”

Copy Served on Marcos

Stavis said a copy of the temporary restraining order was served on Marcos on Wednesday, but that process servers had not located three other defendants who he said had worked as agents for the Marcoses in this country.

They are Vilma Bautista, a secretary at the Philippines Mission to the United Nations, Antonio Floirendo, a Philippine-born businessman who lives in New Jersey, and Gliceria Tantoco, a wealthy New York real estate manager.

In papers filed with the temporary restraining order, the Aquino government charges that Marcos “participated in widespread purloining of funds and properties which were and are the property of the Philippine government.”

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights is a nonprofit legal and human rights group that is representing the Aquino government without charge.

Meanwhile, in Washington officials said U.S. government agencies were looking for Marcos’ private yacht, which set sail from the Philippines last week only hours after the former president fled the country. One Administration official said the boat went first to Hong Kong, but that its present location is unknown.

Kalb said that if the yacht enters U.S. waters, the boat, its crew, any passengers and its cargo “will be handled in accordance with applicable laws.”

Bob Drogin reported from New York and Norman Kempster from Washington.