A U.S. District judge's lax oversight of more than $30 million tied to the late Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos is ''curious,'' a federal appeals court said in an opinion issued Friday.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that a new judge give a fresh accounting of the $33.8 million previously entrusted to Los Angeles-based U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real.