Sandiganbayan defers Imelda’s arraignment

The Sandiganbayan’s fourth division deferred to Jan. 15 next year the arraignment of former First Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos on four graft cases filed against her in 1995 for allegedly putting up dummy foundations with accounts in Swiss banks when she was minister of human settlements.

The anti-graft court’s first division, for its part, refused to assume jurisdiction over the auction of a 60-piece jewelry set worth some P104.93 million being claimed by Mrs. Marcos.

Associate Justice Narciso Nario Jr., the fourth division’s chairman, said they decided to reset Mrs. Marcos’ arraignment because her lawyers have a pending motion to quash the information filed against her.

The Office of the Ombudsman charged Mrs. Marcos for allegedly owning financial interests in Vibur, Aguamina and Avertina foundations with accounts in the Swiss Banking Corp., as well as in the Pretorien, Cesar, Gladiator and ESG with separate accounts in Banque Paribas.

Vibur alone, according to prosecutors, had deposits amounting to $3.6 million as of Dec. 31, 1991, while Aguamina had deposits of $80.57 million.

Avertina, a merger of the Xandy and Winthrop foundations, was found to have deposits of P240 million as of Dec. 31, 1989 under the name of "Jane Ryan," which prosecutors claimed was Mrs. Marcos’ pseudonym.

Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan’s first division virtually gave the Bureau of Customs the go-signal to auction off the so-called "Roumeliotes collection."

This, after Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena denied, in open court, Mrs. Marcos’ motion to declare the collection part of another cache of jewelry under litigation in the court and under the safekeeping of Malacañang.

Customs authorities seized the 60-piece set from Demetrious Roumeliotes, a Hong Kong-based jewel merchant, at the Manila International Airport on March 1, 1996.