Imelda on Sandigan: Touched by angels

It’s an answered prayer and the three justices were touched by angels.

This was the reaction of former First Lady Imelda Marcos yesterday to the Sandiganbayan’s ruling last Friday rejecting the government’s claim on the $659.7-million escrow account at the Philippine National Bank.

Marcos, through her spokeswoman Cherry Cobarrubias, lauded Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena, who wrote the decision, and Associate Justices Nicodemo Ferrer and Gregory Ong, who voted for the reversal of the anti-graft court’s Sept. 19, 2000 ruling which declared that the alleged Marcos deposit was ill-gotten wealth and should be forfeited in favor of the government.

"This is an answered prayer," said Mrs. Marcos. "Even if the reversal would only mean the start of long court proceedings, at least we saw that there are three justices in the Sandiganbayan who were touched by their angels and saw the wisdom of truth and for justice to prevail."

Sources said Marcos had started having a "Saturday prayer vigil" in her house on P. Guevarra street in San Juan to pray for the anti-graft court to grant her motion for reconsideration on the Sept. 19 ruling.

"I was overwhelmed by this recent development in the Sandiganbayan because it only proves that the power of prayers is strong and faith can move mountains," Marcos said.

Cobarrubias, president and founding chairman of the Marcos Loyalist Headquarters who tried unsuccessfully to get a seat in the House of Representatives through the party-list system last May, said Mrs. Marcos started the prayer vigil even before the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Cobarrubias said the recent ruling of the anti-graft court would finally give the Marcoses a chance to get a fair trial.

"This is a big issue for the Marcoses, especially Mrs. Marcos, because ..the series of sequestrations made by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG)... under Executive Order No. 1 had no legal basis and the forfeiture of the Swiss escrow accounts was based on the summary judgment of Sandiganbayan on Sept. 19, 2000. Mrs. Marcos and her children were vindicated," Cobarrubias said.

Executive Order (EO) No. 1, issued by then President Corazon Aquino on Feb. 28, 1986, created the PCGG and appointed former Sen. Jovito Salonga as its first chairman, with Ramon Diaz, Pedro Yap, Raul Daza and Mary Concepcion-Bautista as commissioners. It tasked the PCGG to assist the President in recovering all ill-gotten wealth accumulated by the Marcoses, their relatives, subordinates and close associates.

Mrs. Marcos’ spokesman said that EO No. 1 declared the Marcoses grafters of government funds "without giving them due process" and paved the way for the "illegal sequestrations of various legally acquired Marcos properties."

Earlier, Salonga suggested freeing the money from escrow by invoking a provision of the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters.

Cobarrubias said that Salonga should stop intervening in the dispute involving the alleged Marcos ill-gotten wealth.

"Salonga had been the chairman of PCGG for several years, but yet he failed to convict the Marcoses and prove that there is indeed ill-gotten wealth. Salonga... is a congenital liar. He himself confirmed in his book that prior to the declaration of martial law, he already knew that the bombers of Plaza Miranda were members of the Communist Party of the Philippines. But then he did not reveal it when Marcos was still the president and kept it to himself and even lied by blaming Marcos for the incident," Cobarrubias said.

She said the three Sandigan justices were right when they favored the reversal of the Sept. 19 ruling. "Some of the documents used in this case were the same documents used in New York against the Marcoses, which was dubbed the trial of the century. The Marcoses were acquitted there and they were vindicated," she said.

She also urged Garchitorena not to heed the call of his critics for him to resign. "He should continue his duty as an advocate of justice, regardless of the people he will encounter."

In a 3-2 vote, the anti-graft court division of five headed by Garchitorena granted the motions for reconsideration filed by Mrs. Marcos and her three children, Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos-Manotoc, Ilocos Norte Gov. Bongbong Marcos and Irene Marcos-Araneta.

In an 11-page decision, Garchitorena admitted that he erred when he voted on Sept. 19, 2000 favoring the forfeiture of the Marcos Swiss accounts in favor of the government.

CARP amendment

Meanwhile, former PCGG chairman Jovito Salonga has said that he favors the amendment of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) law so martial law victims can finally be compensated.

The first PCGG chief also lauded present PCGG chairman Haydee Yorac for the way she is handling the agency. "There is nothing she can do that will not be opposed by anyone ... I think Yorac is doing her best. She is upright. That woman has principles," Salonga said.

Close to 10,000 human rights victims during the martial law era are seeking an amendment of the CARP law in a desperate bid to source out funds for the P200 million compensation they are asking from the Marcoses.

The amount is stipulated in a consolidated bill the victims intend to file in Congress. At present, all the recoveries of PCGG go to CARP.

"I am in favor (of the amendment) so that the human rights victims can get (compensation)," Salonga told PCGG reporters.

A few years ago, the victims filed and won a class suit before US District Court of Hawaii Judge Manuel Real who awarded them $2.9 billion in damages. In 1998, the victims forged a compromise agreement with the Marcoses and the PCGG, then headed by Magdangal Elma, for P150 million in compensation. The agreement, however, was rejected by Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena the following year.

The victims are now proposing to the PCGG that the $659.7 million escrow account be used to compensate them.

But the PCGG suffered a setback in its efforts to recover the escrow account when the Sandiganbayan reversed its September 2000 ruling, blaming the PCGG for failing to submit the "authenticated translations" of the Swiss Supreme Court that declared that the account belonged to the Marcoses and that much of it was ill-gotten.

The victims’ legal counsel, lawyer Rod Domingo, urged the PCGG to comply with the Sandiganbayan requirement and submit the authenticated documents. — Sheila Crisostomo