Marcos lawyer supports special court for graft cases

Lawyers from the prosecution and defense panels in the Marcos graft cases pending before the Sandiganbayan welcomed yesterday the suggestion that a special division in the Supreme Court be created to speed ups the resolution of the cases.

Robert Sison, a lawyer of former first lady Imelda Marcos, said he is amenable to this arrangement.

"We are all out for a speedy trial, especially in criminal cases. Marathon hearings would be fine with me," he said.

Chief special prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio agreed, saying "that’s a good proposal that merits serious consideration in the light of the number of Marcos cases now pending in various courts."

Villa Ignacio heads the prosecutors handling all the Marcos graft cases. His deputy, Robert Kallos — a career official at the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) — echoed his statements.

"That would be very good for the prosecution. It would be much better… I just hope the Supreme Court will allow it," Kallos said.

He pointed out that the creation of a special division is not a remote possibility since there is already a "precedent," saying that deposed President Joseph Estrada’s three cases for plunder, illegal use of an alias and perjury were lumped together and are now being tried by one court in the Sandiganbayan.

There are 38 Marcos cases pending in the Sandiganbayan’s various divisions, 11 of them criminal cases while 27 are civil suits. The OSP and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), an agency tasked to recover the Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth, handle the prosecution of these cases.

Villa Ignacio does not want to suggest names for the proposed special division because "we want to appear as impartial as possible."

Sison, on the other hand, said it will be a big help if the justices presently handling the 38 Marcos cases will preside over the trial under the proposed special division.

Justices Godofredo Legaspi, Raoul Victorino and Norberto Gonzalez of the Sandiganbayan’s third division earlier proposed the creation of the special division to the PCGG.

Legaspi, who chairs the Sandiganbayan’s third division, inhibited himself from the Marcos cases raffled to his division because the 74-year-old widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was one of the sponsors at the wedding of Legaspi’s son to the daughter of Gen. Bienvenido Felix.

However, Legaspi was recalled by the justices of the anti-graft court because of the overload of cases filed before the Sandiganbayan.