House of Representatives (1949-1959) and a member of the Philippine Senate (1959-1965), Ferdinand Marcos became the president of the Philippines in 1966, a post he held until 1986, when his people rose against his dictatorial rule and he fled. The Marcoses of the Philippines are a useful example of a political couple that failed the "net worth test." A financial analysis based on the Marcos's income tax returns for the financial years 1966 to 1985 reveal the following: Reportable income P 16,408,442 (approx. US$ 2,414,484.91) Official salaries P 2,627,581 Legal Practice P 11,109,836 Farm Income P 149,700 Others P 2,521,325 Although Ferdinand Marcos was barred by law from practising his law profession during his entire 20 years as President, he claimed that his legal fees represented "receivables from prior years". When Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos became the First Couple in 1965, their net worth was only Pesos ("P") 120,000, i.e. US$7,000. When they were thrown out of the Philippines in 1986, their estimated assets amounted to more than $5 billion. Indeed, the Swiss accounts of the Marcoses, which were frozen in 1986, amounted to approximately US$357 million, such a sum far exceeding the Marcoses legitimate increase in net worth. The District Court of Hawaii finds that Marcos was responsible for executions, disappearances and torture during his rule and awards nearly US$2 billion in damages to thousands of surviving victims. The victims later agree to a US$150 million settlement, but a court in the Philippines blocks payment in 1999. In July the Philippine Supreme Court rules that the US$624 million portion of the Marcos fortune discovered in Swiss bank accounts must be handed over to the Philippine Government. The money is to be used to buy land for distribution to poor farmers. The Marcos family immediately appeal against the judgement. On25 March the international anticorruption organization Transparency International (TI) places Marcos at second on a list of the world's most corrupt political leaders of the past two decades, surpassed only by former Indonesian PresidentSuharto. According to TI, Marcos is alleged to have embezzled between US$5 billion and US$10 billion from the Philippines. Meanwhile, a judge in Hawaii orders that US$40 million held by a finance company set up by Marcos be used to start paying the victims of his regime who were awarded damages in 1994. The finance company appeals the ruling. InJanuary a US District Court judge approves the distribution of compensation to about 7,500 victims of the Marcos regime. Each claimant receives about US$1000. The money is sourced from a US$10 million settlement against the holders of land in Texas and Colorado bought with Marcos funds. The same judge also finds Imelda Marcos and Ferdinand Marcos Jr in contempt for violating a court order requiring them to provide information about the assets of the Marcos estate. They are ordered to pay a fine of US$356.6 million, with the money to be distributed to the victims of the regime. Marcos might not be one of the all-time killers but he is certainly one of the biggest thieves in the history of the planet. Estimates of his ill- gotten gains range from US$3 billion to US$35 billion. Some suggest that the true amount is over US$100 billion, perhaps even trillions of dollars. While these latter sums may he fanciful, the legacy of the Marcos dictatorship is all too real - an economy struggling just to pay the interest on its foreign debt and a seriously compromised democracy seemingly unable to shake off entrenched corruption. Witness the debacle of the Estrada presidency. It took Marcos 20 years to pillage and wreck the Philippines. Unfortunately it may take far longer for the damage to be undone.