What can ‘go wrong’ with Imelda Marcos' conviction

What can “go wrong” with Imelda Marcos’ sentencing for graft?

A former commissioner who tracked down $680 million in secret Swiss deposits asks that in light of Imelda’s recent conviction. And he – lawyer Ruben Carranza – answers it himself:

Imelda’s guilty verdict could go the way of an earlier one – that was overturned under unusual circumstances.

Carranza, with the Presidential Commission on Good Government in 2003, had helped forfeit the $680 million from Imelda’s seven Swiss accounts. Filed in 1991, that civil suit was the twin of a criminal rap for graft, for which Imelda the other week was meted 77 years in prison. Both involve amassment of unexplained wealth. Both rest on the same evidence: documents left behind by the Marcoses in their haste to flee Malacañang from the People Power Revolt of 1986. That the civil suit took 12 long years to resolve, and the criminal one 27 longer years, is a testament to snail-paced Philippine justice.

Last week, Imelda was granted P150,000-bail, to stay out of jail while appealing her verdict.

That brought back to Carranza’s mind how Imelda also was convicted in 1998, posted a paltry bail, flew abroad several times – then got acquitted on oddities.

Also filed in 1991 was an open-and-shut case for corruption. It involved acts that grossly and manifestly were disadvantageous to the government, a definition of graft. Imelda, as chairwoman in 1984 of the government’s Light Rail Transit Authority, leased out nearly a hectare of its prime lot to the private PGH Foundation. Amount: P102,760 a month for 25 years. The chairwoman of lessee PGH Foundation also was Imelda. In that capacity she turned around and subleased the same state property to another foundation for seven times more, P734,000, also for 25 years.

Government clearly was hoodwinked, the Sandiganbayan ruled. Imelda appealed to the Supreme Court where, by rule, it was reviewed by one of three five-member divisions. That division affirmed the conviction which, by rule, was final and executory.

Then came the strange twist, Carranza recounted in “Sapol” radio show (DWIZ) last Saturday. Imelda’s lawyer Estelito Mendoza personally wrote each of the justices to review the case en banc. It was an extraordinary request, not a legal pleading, from an extraordinary counsel. Mendoza was once President Ferdinand Marcos’ solicitor general and justice minister. In that position he had hired and/or placed many judges, some of whom rose to justices of higher courts.

The Supreme Court not only acceded to Mendoza’s request for en banc review, but also reversed Imelda’s conviction.

Bigger amounts and longer sentences are involved in the current conviction, Carranza notes. He asks the public closely to monitor the progress of the appeal.

Already a separate Imelda case has taken a turn, he says. The PCGG is striving to recover $3.5 million from the auction in New York of three Imelda paintings filched from her collection by former aide Vilma Bautista. The PCGG’s US lawyers had proven the three masterpieces – by Monet, Sisley, and Marquet – as part of Imelda’s illegal wealth. Recently in Manila, Solicitor General Jose Calida fired the American lawyers, withheld their fees, and withdrew the recovery case from court.

“What will happen to the case now, as Calida is a self-admitted Marcos loyalist?” asks Carranza who now works for an NGO that helps newly restored democracies like Nepal, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Iraq, Palestine, Liberia, Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya.

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Only two weekends left to watch the musicale “Waitress,” starring Joanna Ampil and Bituin Escalante, at Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati. Taken from Broadway, “Waitress” is about a pie maker who finds comfort from her mundane life through the magic of her baking. Helped by work mates, she dreams of the annual pie competition as a way out of a loveless marriage. Six-time Grammy nominee Sara Barreilles wrote the music for the hit that will open next year at London’s West End. The Atlantis Theatricals production is directed by Bobby Garcia.

Also in the cast: Maronne Cruz, Bibo Reyes, Nino Alejandro, George Schulze, Dean Rosen, and Steven Conde.

Choreography by Cecile Martinez, set design by David Gallo, lighting design by Aaron Porter, musical direction by Farley Asuncion, costume design by Raven Ong, sound design by Josh Millican, hair and make up design by Johann dela Fuente, and vocal coaching by Manman Angsico.

Play dates: Nov. 23-25, Nov. 30-Dec. 2. Fridays-Sundays at 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees Saturdays and Sundays. Reservations at TicketWorld (02) 8919999.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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