IT’S a miracle all right, but a miracle nevertheless that is hardly worth a moment of rejoicing. Imelda Marcos’ guilty verdict on seven counts of graft comes too late to have any exemplary value on current grafters including Mrs. Marcos whose advanced years make the verdict inconsequential.
It succeeds less to restore my faith in the system than to shake my confidence in its fundamentally two-tiered and, therefore, unjust approach to the delivery of justice. Like, one wonders what role her ill-gotten wealth played in the delayed verdict. Why does it take so long, anyway, to render judgment on cases filed against the wealthy and powerful?
The graft and plunder cases against Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla, etc. are still pending in court. Yet they are allowed to run for office even from their prison cells. Already too, people are being conditioned to accept that Imelda Marcos can still legally run for office as her guilty verdict is not yet final and executory.
In any case, she has so many legal recourses (available to the wealthy) that one can validly doubt if she will ever be jailed, if her ill-gotten wealth will not keep her from serving the sentence. Didn’t she snub the promulgation by attending instead the birthday party of daughter Imee? And about her old age, if God punishes us rich and poor sinners alike after death, why not punish criminals, rich or poor alike, in their old age?
Although Malacañang respects the guilty verdict, it is a fact that President Duterte has a soft place in his heart for the Marcoses. I support Duterte’s programs but this fondness for the Marcoses is one I cannot agree to. Thus, I cannot help but wonder how much of this fondness will translate into treating the guilty Imelda with a gloved hand.
It’s also too little because it’s only about graft. What about the imprisonments, the tortures, the disappearances and the brutal deaths of those who opposed the Marcos regime? Nobody has been convicted of those crimes yet. There is not even a case against anybody for those crimes.
This brings up the question why two aggrieved presidents, Cory and Noynoy, could not bring the Marcoses to justice. It conjures up a dreadful specter of the elite holding hands to build a common moat to keep ordinary people away from their castles of power, wealth and privilege.
No, this writer is not rejoicing at Imelda’s guilty verdict. It’s too little, too late. Imelda is probably laughing it off as a minor irritant, nothing that her ill-gotten wealth and influence cannot make go away. Still, I end my lament hoping I am wrong and she would spend the remaining days of her life in jail even if only for a partial closure to a horribly ugly episode of our national life.