THE government has not forged any compromise deals with former First Lady Imelda Marcos to recover her family’s ill-gotten wealth, the state’s anti-corruption watchdog said yesterday.

“No deal. The [Presidential Commission on Good Government] is not planning to forge an alliance or enter into a secret agreement with the Marcoses,” said Nicasio Conti, the agency’s commissioner for litigation.

He made the statement after the agency’s commissioner for assets and management, Ricardo Abcede, said auctioning off Imelda Marcos’ sequestered jewels would speed up the recovery of her family’s ill-gotten wealth.

That wealth has been estimated at $10 billion, but the government has only recovered $690 million so far—money turned over by Swiss banks. Imelda Marcos’ jewelry alone is thought to be worth $10 million to $15 million.

“No deal,” Conti said.

Abcede himself said the commission would not push through with its plan to strike a compromise deal with Imelda Marcos.

He drew the ire of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos’ human rights victims—as well as top government officials—after he proposed to strike an agreement with his widow to settle her family’s court cases.

“She has decided to go through the regular judicial process,” Abcede said.

“Apparently, she’s no longer interested in an out-of-court-settlement [of all the ill-gotten-wealth cases filed by the commission against her family],” he said.

Marcos had filed a suit in Manila to stop the commission from auctioning off her jewelry collection, and Abcede said that auction was not likely to push through in the next six months.

Another commission official said the planned auction was “off indefinitely,” but did not elaborate.

The planned sale of the Marcos jewels is said to be part of a plan to privatize some sequestered assets to raise P30 billion for the government’s coffers.

The government had considered selling the jewelry collection as early as the late 1980s.

Two years ago it decided to do so, but Imelda Marcos went to a court in Manila to stop it.