FALSE: Cory Aquino’s letter proclaims Marcos wealth is not ill-gotten

At a glance

• Claim: A letter allegedly from former president Corazon “Cory” Aquino proclaimed that the wealth of former president Ferdinand Marcos was not ill-gotten but “divine wealth,” and that all ongoing and future legal proceedings about the wealth were ordered cleared.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: No such proclamation letter can be found in the Official Gazette.
• Why we fact-checked this: A YouTube video, some blogs, and several Facebook posts have been circulating the letter. 

Complete details

A letter dated June 29, 1992, is circulating on numerous websites. In the letter, former president Corazon “Cory” Aquino supposedly declared that Marcos wealth was not ill-gotten but “divine wealth,” and that all ongoing and future legal proceedings about the wealth were ordered cleared.

The proclamation number is blacked out in the letter. It also said that it was in recognition of another letter from Jovito Salonga, who became Senate president during the Aquino administration and was also the first chairperson of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), which was mandated to get back the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their cronies.

The letter can be seen in a video from the YouTube channel “VIRAL PH NEWS” uploaded on June 19, 2021, titled “EBIDENSYANG LIHAM NI CORY NA NAGPATUNAY NA WALANG KASO ANG MGA MARCOS AYAW ILABAS NG MGA MEDIA!” (Cory’s letter, which proves the Marcoses have no cases, that the media does not want to publish!) As of writing, the video has 45,365 views. 

Two blogs – radioblogveritas.blogspot.com and gulongngpaladcirclesoflife.blogspot.com – show the letter as well.

On Facebook, a CrowdTangle search has determined that some posts have spread the link to the video from YouTube channel “VIRAL PH NEWS,” while some others have spread the link from radioblogveritas.blogspot.com. Another CrowdTangle search has also determined that the photo with the letter has been spreading on Facebook as far back as 2015.

The claim is false. 

The entries from the Official Gazette for June 25-30, 1992, do not show any proclamation letter with the same text as in the supposed letter from Aquino. No such entry can be found either in the weeks prior: June 15-25, 1992; June 4-15, 1992; and June 1-3, 1992. There is also no similar letter in the entries for July 1-3, 1992.

The letter also stated that Marcos’ “Huling Kalooban at Tipan” or Last Will and Testament was executed on December 20, 1985. That date was contradicted by several news items from ABS-CBN News, GMA News, and The Manila Times, which stated that Marcos’ last will and testament was executed in 1982.

Rappler had shown before that the letter claimed to be from Jovito Salonga, which was cited in the spurious letter from Aquino, was also fabricated. The letter attributed to Salonga also shared the supposed letter from Aquino. (READ: FALSE: Jovito Salonga’s ‘letter’ to Cory saying Marcos had no ill-gotten wealth)

Dictator and former president Ferdinand Marcos and his family have faced multiple charges for anomalies during his 20-year regime. Some are still pending with the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan. – Percival Bueser/Rappler.com

Percival Bueser is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.

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