THANKS to our justice system, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos are so lucky that, despite their records of plunder, they have escaped punishment for their humongous misdeeds.
Recently, the Sandiganbayan Second Division rejected a government effort to recover more than a billion pesos worth of properties from the Marcos family and associates of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, saying the state failed to prove its case. I cannot understand why it took the Sandiganbayan more than 31 years to decide the case.
On the part of the Marcos family, we can understand that what they hoped for was a prolonged trial of all these criminal and civil cases to enable them to wait for a friendly regime.
Now, under President Rodrigo Duterte, everything is possible. The government’s lawyer, Solicitor General Jose Calida, must be ecstatic with joy. He is an Ilocano and is related to the Marcoses.
In a report in a national newspaper on March 27, 1998, Imelda Marcos in an interview with Bullit Marquez, said: “I am not aware of the extent of our wealth. That’s how rich we are.”
Imelda’s admission regarding the Marcos’s plundered and stolen wealth boggles the human imagination. Imelda’s braggadocio may be preposterous. But if we consider the long years of Marcos in power and how they control through their cronies, the various businesses from media and telecommunications, to beer industry, logging, banana plantations, duty free shops and all other imaginable business activities which they controlled during the dictatorship, Imelda’s claim is not preposterous.
The justice system in this country is in disarray. The Marcoses, instead of being punished, are now occupying high seats of power. Imelda is a congresswoman; Imee is now a senator and Ferdinand Jr. is hoping to dislodge (God forbid) Vice President Leni Robredo.
In their greed, the Marcoses should ponder upon this Chinese proverb: “Men should beware of coveting riches, for when riches come due to covetousness, heaven’s calamities will follow.” (By Democrito C. Barcenas)