by MLC | Jan 1, 2019 | Martial Law Analysis
By: LLANESCA T. PANTI
Source: GMA News
Ilocos Norte Representative Imelda Marcos will be “a prisoner of her own conscience” and will not be liberated despite the grant of bail by the Sandiganbayan, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said Friday.
“No conscience is so callous as not to be afflicted by guilt and remorse,” Lagman, an opposition leader at the House of Representatives, said.
“The massive human rights atrocities and pillage during Marcos’ martial law will perpetually haunt the Marcoses and condemn them to the prison of history,” he added in a statement.
Lagman’s borther, Hermon, was among the desaparecidos during the martial law years, which was ruled by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Mrs. Marcos, 89, was ordered last week to serve six to 11 years in prison for each of the seven counts of graft for using her position as government official to unlawfully participate and benefit from managing non-government organizations in Switzerland from 1978 to 1984.
On Friday, she was allowed to post a P150,000 bail pending the resolution of her motion seeking post-conviction remedies.
Former Senator Rene Saguisag said Marcos’ conviction was accordance with a July 15, 2003 Supreme Court decision mandating the Marcoses to return at least $10 billion of their ill-gotten wealth to the government.
“Conviction, to me, is humiliating enough,” Saguisag said in a separate email to GMA News Online.
Lawyer Edre Olalia of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) said the bail grant to Marcos showed that “some are more powerful than others.”
“And so it came to pass that by a mere motion of a convicted plunderer, the Philippine court deferred and bid its time in the actual issuance of the arrest warrant against an accused who has lost all legal remedies by reason of her failure to attend the said promulgation,” he said in a statement.
“So after 27 long agonizing years, the Filipino people are again made to wait for the reckoning. Meantime, Imelda can go on partying the nights away, run for elections together with her forgetful eldest daughter, and wait for his son, the dictator’s namesake, to become president. Because some are more powerful than others,” Olalia added.
by MLC | Dec 31, 2018 | Martial Law Analysis
Source: Herald Malaysia Online
The Philippines’ anti-graft court has ordered the arrest of Imelda Marcos, widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, after she was found guilty on seven counts of graft.
By: Jose Torres Jr
The Philippines’ anti-graft court has ordered the arrest of Imelda Marcos, widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, after she was found guilty on seven counts of graft.
She was sentenced to a minimum of six years to a maximum of 11 years and a month imprisonment.
The court ruling could prevent Marcos, who is running for governor in Ilocos Norte province in next year’s mid-term elections, from holding public office.
The former first lady, who is currently a member of Congress, can still run next year but will be disqualified if the court ruling becomes final after her appeal.
The 89-year-old Marcos was found guilty of corruption for using her cabinet position during the rule of her husband to maintain Swiss bank accounts.
Last year, President Rodrigo Duterte announced that Marcos had offered to return a portion of their so-called ill-gotten wealth, which is estimated between US$5 billion to US$10 billion.
The government has only recovered about US$3.2 billion in the past 30 years.
by MLC | Dec 30, 2018 | Martial Law Analysis
Source: ABS-CBN News
MANILA – The Sandiganbayan 5th Division on Friday convicted former First Lady and Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos of 7 counts of graft for using her Cabinet position to maintain Swiss bank accounts during the regime of her late husband, dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Read the court’s full 70-page ruling, which sentences Marcos to imprisonment of 6 years and 1 month to 11 years for each of the 7 counts, with perpetual disqualification from public office.
by MLC | Dec 29, 2018 | Martial Law Analysis
By: Adrian Ayalin
Source: ABS-CBN News
MANILA – Former First Lady and Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos on Friday said her counsel intends to appeal the Sandiganbayan 5th Division’s decision which found her guilty in 7 counts of graft for using her Cabinet position to maintain Swiss bank accounts during the Marcos regime.
“Justice Lolong Lazaro, who has previously appeared as counsel in this case, will act as my counsel in the interim. He is presently studying the decision and has advised us that he intends to file a Motion for Reconsideration,” Marcos said in a statement, issued by the office of her daughter Imee.
The lawmaker said Lazaro will temporarily replace her attorney of record, lawyer Robert Sison who “has been indisposed and is presently confined at the Asian Hospital.
With her conviction, Marcos is sentenced to imprisonment of 6 years and 1 month to 11 years for each of the 7 counts, with perpetual disqualification from public office.
The court also ordered for the issuance of arrest warrants against the 89-year old lawmaker.
The Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth “is estimated between US$5 billion to US$10 billion, the bulk of it being deposited and hidden abroad,” according to the Philippine Commission on Good Government (PCGG).
The government has recovered a total of P170 billion in the past 30 years.
by MLC | Dec 28, 2018 | Martial Law Analysis
Source: ABS-CBN News
MANILA – Former First Lady and Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Romualdez Marcos on Friday attended a party, hours after the Sandiganbayan 5th Division found her guilty of graft.
Marcos was seen in photos with other government officials such as Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio and House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, among others during her daughter Imee Marcos’ birthday party.
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, Solicitor General Jose Calida, and former Senate president Juan Ponce-Enrile were also in attendance.
The former first lady was in “high spirits” despite her conviction, according to a Facebook post by Mike Acebedo Lopez.
“Happy to see Auntie Meldy unperturbed by the bad news of yesterday, a judgement issued by Noynoy Aquino appointees in the same Sandiganbayan division that exonerated an LP congressman (Teddy Baguilat) because he was supposedly denied his right to speedy disposition of cases,” he said.
“His case was filed in 2009 (ten years ago). Auntie Meldy’s was filed in 1991—27 years ago—and yet the same Sandiganbayan division with majority Noynoy Aquino appointees convicted her. What of her right to speedy disposition of cases, a right they extended to Baguilat when they acquitted him?”
Earlier Friday, the anti-graft court found her guilty for using her Cabinet position to maintain Swiss bank accounts during the Marcos regime.
Marcos’ graft cases stemmed from complaints filed in 1991 when prosecutors alleged that the Marcos family channeled public funds into their personal accounts overseas.
With her conviction, Marcos is sentenced to imprisonment of 6 years and 1 month to 11 years for each of the 7 counts, with perpetual disqualification from public office.
Marcos said her counsel intends to appeal the Sandiganbayan’s decision.
by MLC | Dec 27, 2018 | Martial Law Analysis
Source: ABS-CBN News
Former Philippine First Lady and incumbent congresswoman Imelda Marcos attends the third and final reading of the death penalty bill inside the House of the Representatives in Quezon city, metro Manila, Philippines March 7, 2017. Romeo Ranoco, Reuters
MANILA – The camp of former First Lady and Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos has submitted a motion for leave of court to avail post-conviction remedies before the Sandiganbayan 5th Division.
The motion is scheduled for hearing on Friday, November 16 at 8:30 a.m.
Her lawyer, former Justice Manuel Lazaro has also entered his appearance before the court, to replace lawyer Robert Sison who represented Mrs. Marcos during the trial.
Marcos earlier said she will be filing a motion for reconsideration for the reversal of her conviction.
The Sandiganbayan 5th Division on Friday found her guilty in 7 counts of graft for using her Cabinet position to maintain Swiss bank accounts during the Marcos regime.
With her conviction, Marcos is sentenced to imprisonment of 6 years and 1 month to 11 years for each of the 7 counts, with perpetual disqualification from public office.
The court also ordered for the issuance of arrest warrants against the 89-year old lawmaker.
The Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth “is estimated between US$5 billion to US$10 billion, the bulk of it being deposited and hidden abroad,” according to the Philippine Commission on Good Government (PCGG).
The government has recovered a total of P170 billion in the past 30 years.
