MANILA – Malacañang on Monday said Congress must authorize President Rodrigo Duterte to enter into negotiations with the Marcos family for the return of their ill-gotten wealth.

• Duterte: Marcoses ready to return gold bars, portion of hidden wealth

"This entire negotiation will be done professionally and transparently, with a full accounting to the people, and especially, authority from the Congress,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a news conference in Malacañang.

"We therefore urge the Congress to authorize the President to proceed with negotiations and set parameters taking into account concerns raised by critics and the citizenry. It would be best if we all work together for final justice, closure and national reconciliation."

Abella, however, could not explain what role Congress will specifically take in the negotiations, only noting that "the President cannot just simply be acting on his own."

He also could not explain why the Presidential Commission on Good Government was not being tapped to lead the negotiations. The commission, formed during the presidency of Corazon Aquino, is tasked to go after the estimated $10 billion ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and his cronies.

"This is entirely new ground. So we need guidance [from Congress]," Abella said.

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The late President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda were accused of plundering about $10 billion from state coffers in 20 years in power. A bloodless "People Power" uprising in 1986 chased the family into US exile.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier revealed that the Marcos family is now willing to hold talks for the return of their wealth.

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The President said Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos told him that the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos took the wealth including gold bars to "protect the economy." He said he accepted this explanation.

Abella said Malacañang would also not make a stand on whether the Marcoses’ wealth is ill-gotten or not.

“The President has said that he will accept however they explain it. So we’re not taking a stand regarding it. He is speaking like a lawyer and accepts what the other party is saying,” he said.

Nonetheless, Abella said the government is “not making any statements about discounting any charges” against the Marcoses for keeping the loot.

The PCGG has already recovered 170 billion pesos or about $3.4 billion in ill-gotten wealth as well as jewelry, art and other assets from the Marcoses.

The government is still pursuing 248 cases against the Marcoses and their alleged cronies in various courts, with some appeals pending before the Supreme Court.

Former PCGG chief Ruben Carranza earlier argued that the Marcos family's offer to return gold bars and a portion of their hidden wealth would violate a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that declared assets of the Marcoses beyond $304,000 as ill-gotten.

"The sum of $304,372.43 should be held as the only known lawful income of respondents since they did not file any Statement of Assets and Liabilities (SAL), as required by law, from which their net worth could be determined," the High Court said in a July 2003 decision.

• Gov't can't strike deal with Marcoses on ill-gotten wealth—ex-PCGG chief

YAMASHITA'S TREASURE

The alleged offer to return the Marcos wealth is the latest development in the remarkable political rehabilitation of the Marcos clan.

Despite the dictator's death in Hawaii exile in 1989, his family has been making a political comeback in the Philippines with his widow, Imelda, and their children getting elected to office.

No member of the Marcos family went to prison despite the government recovery of some of its fortune through litigation and out-of-court settlements.

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Duterte has openly supported the Marcos family, cheering on the Marcos son, Ferdinand Jnr, in his failed bid for the vice-presidency last year.

The Marcos family is known to be grooming him for the presidency as well, and the son is challenging the result of the vice-presidential vote in court in a fight that could put him in the country's second-highest office.

Duterte stunned the nation in November last year by allowing the body of the late dictator to be buried in the national "Heroes' Cemetery" despite a widespread outcry that his abuses and corruption exempted him from such an honor.

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Imelda, the widow of Marcos, denies the family's wealth is ill-gotten and at times has said her late husband recovered the treasure of Japan's World War II General Tomoyuki Yamashita that was looted from across Southeast Asia. With a report by Agence France Presse