The Philippine government has shelved plans to auction jewellery owned by former first lady Imelda Marcos, a spokesman said on Tuesday, leaving it to the next administration to decided what to do with the valuables. Imelda Marcos, who won a seat in Congress in elections earlier this month and is perhaps best known for leaving behind more than 1,200 pairs of shoes when her family fled in 1986, has vowed to recover the family's seized assets. Ferdinand Marcos was president for nearly two decades, before he was ousted in an army-backed uprising in 1986. The dictator, who died in exile in 1989, was accused of amassing more than $10 billion while in office. “It is not timely to consider this matter because this could be viewed as a so-called midnight transaction,” said Nick Suarez, spokesman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the agency charged with searching and recovering ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos regime. Suarez said the agency had decided not to sell the jewellery, estimated to be worth about $12-15 million, due to pending court cases and the end of the government's term on June 30. The government had tried to auction the three sets of jewellery in 2005, but Imelda contested the move, claiming ownership of only two of the collections -- one found in the presidential palace after the family's hasty departure in 1986 and one seized in Hawaii where they were in exile. The third collection was seized from a Greek national who attempted to smuggle it out of the country in the late 1980s. The jewellery is held in the central bank's vaults for safekeeping. The agency has seized more than $5 billion of assets from the Marcos family and associates.
