An official of the Duterte senatorial candidates campaign did not let the tirades pass against former President Rodrigo R. Duterte by Palace press officer Claire Castro, who said Duterte is sowing intrigues and should present proof that the Marcos family stole gold reserves.

Atty. Martin B. Delgra III, spokesperson for the Duterte senatorial candidates 2025 campaign, said Communications Undersecretary Castro missed the whole point on the gold reserves raised by FPRRD.

"The message of FPRRD is clear. It's a call for full transparency. The Filipino people, who own the gold, want the details on how much was sold, for how much, to whom it was sold, and the liquidation of the proceeds of the sale," Delgra said, referring to the 24.95 tonnes of gold sold by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' (BSP) in the first half of 2024.

He was referring to Duterte's statement during the recent Cebu People's Indignation Rally in Mandaue City.

"The first thing Marcos stole was our gold reserves. They have been selling our gold until now, and there's very little left. So how will the economy stand in the future?" the former president said. "We don't know how much was sold or when. That's the biggest there; we have no idea."

Data from the World Gold Council, a brokerage tracking website bestbrokers.com, showed that the BSP sold the most gold globally,  bringing down the country's gold holdings to 134.06 tons.

Thailand came next, selling 9.64 tons; Uzbekistan, 6.22 tons; Mongolia, 1.33 tons; and Singapore, 1.18 tons.

"BSP has not fully explained it, and surprisingly, it's the Office of the President taking the cudgels for them," Delgra said.

He added: "If indeed Gross International Reserves (GIR) transactions, including gold, are solely the responsibility of BSP, why is the OP or Atty. Castro, not the BSP explaining to the public, not merely a press release na binasa ni (read by) Castro."

He took a swipe at the newly appointed Palace press officer, saying that if she wanted to be the spokesperson of BSP, she should put up or shut up.

GIRs are the BSP's foreign assets mainly held as investments in foreign-issued securities, monetary gold, and foreign exchange.

"GIR is all-encompassing; it includes holdings of foreign exchange (foreign currencies with the US dollar as the world's "reserve" currency) and gold, as well as special drawing rights from international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund," he said.

Though agreeing with Castro that the cash generated from the sale of the gold reserve is used to pump up the economy, Delgra said: "Which is another way of saying that the government is short on tax collections. These could either be of two things, all things assumed — one, the government has a significant shortfall on revenue collections, or, that they approved a huge national budget with a huge deficit on revenues, available or targeted borrowings, or grants," Delgra added. 

During a Malacañang press briefing on February 24, Castro failed to present data when asked by a reporter how much gold had been sold under the Marcos administration.

Delgra said it would be inaccurate to claim that "when the BSP sells gold, the proceeds revert to and stay within the GIR."

"Once gold bullion is sold, it is taken out of the GIR," he said.

Reacting to the BSP statement read by Castro that selling gold is a regular activity, Delgra said: "If the buying and selling of goods is a 'regular' transaction of BSP, when was the last time the BSP sold this much gold to generate cash for the economy?" ###