Epic hunt for Marcos embezzled wealth fails

The Philippines is to wrap up a near-30-year hunt for the embezzled wealth of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, with more than half the supposed US$10 billion fortune still missing.

With Marcos' widow and children back in positions of political power, and the government tightening its belt, the cost of the pursuit had become prohibitive, said the man in charge of the search, Andres Bautista, head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

"It has become a law of diminishing returns at this point," Bautista said.

"It's been 26 years and people you are after are back in power. At some point, you just have to say, 'We've done our best', and that's that."

Bautista, 48, left a high-paying corporate job two years ago to help the government of President Benigno Aquino, who promised to end corruption and uplift the lives of millions of poor Filipinos.

Despite numerous criminal and civil cases being filed against them, none of the Marcos heirs or their cronies who have been accused of plundering government coffers have so far been successfully prosecuted, while high-powered lawyers have been used to tie up the judicial process for years on end.