Imelda wants Garchitorena out of case

Former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos asked Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena yesterday to inhibit himself from an ill-gotten wealth case involving $640 million in Swiss accounts held in escrow at present at the Philippine National Bank.

In an 11-page motion, Mrs. Marcos, through her counsel Rodolfo Jimenez, accused Garchitorena of being biased and of "blinding the vaunted cold neutrality of judicial impartiality."

Mrs. Marcos said she would never get a fair shake from the anti-graft court’s first division with Garchitorena in the case.

She recalled that Garchitorena and his wife, Presidential Management Staff Secretary Victoria Garchitorena, were among the 50 people behind a petition to impeach the late former President Marcos in 1985.

On Sept. 19 last year, the first division declared the Swiss accounts as ill-gotten and forfeited them in favor of the government.

The first division is set to issue a resolution on the motion for reconsideration of Mrs. Marcos and her three children. — Jose Rodel Clapano