How Duterte enabled the return of the Marcoses
From 1992 to 2002, the Marcos family was acquitted of seven separate counts of graft charges. In the past five years, however, five graft cases against the Marcoses were dismissed. And though Imelda Marcos, the wife of the late dictator who held several government offices during their two-decade rule, was convicted of seven counts of graft cases under the Duterte administration, she remains scot-free.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO and DOMINIC GUTOMAN
Additional research from Arneth Asiddao
Graphics by Dominic Gutoman
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Five years ago today, the late dictator was given a hero’s burial — a fulfillment of an election promise that President Rodrigo Duterte made when he was still running for the country’s highest post. The president claimed it would erase people’s hatred.
For human rights groups, it did not.
Instead, the move sealed the alliance between the two political families as early as 2016, said the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA). In next year’s elections, the son and namesake of the late dictator, Marcos Jr. is bidding for his family’s return to Malacañang, along with Davao City mayor and the president’s daughter Sara Duterte as his vice president.
“Not content with this bastardization of our nation’s history and our people’s struggle for freedom and justice, Duterte has spent the past five years reviving in full the horrors of Marcosian martial law in his murderous campaigns of State terror, from his militarization of the civilian bureaucracy, the criminalization of political dissent, the killings of activists and attacks on press freedom, and his tyrannical delusions,” a CARMMA statement read.
The hero’s burial came just 10 days after the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions against it, saying that the president did not commit grave discretion as the regulations of the Philippine military allowed it.
From 1992 to 2002, the Marcos family was acquitted of seven separate counts of graft charges. In the past five years, however, five graft cases against the Marcoses were dismissed. And though Imelda Marcos, the wife of the late dictator who held several government offices during their two-decade rule, was convicted of seven counts of graft cases under the Duterte administration, she remains scot-free.
Glorifying the Marcoses
President Duterte, from his days of campaigning to the day of his 2016 victory, has been very vocal in glorifying the Marcoses. This is unprecedented in all of the administrations after the ousting of the late dictator’s two-decade rule.
“(The) martial law of Mr. Marcos was very good,” he said in a 2017 public address.
His spokesperson, on the other hand, once said the president genuinely wishes to step down if “a qualified leader like Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was in place to take the top job.”
While the Marcos family, Imee in particular, is not listed as his donor in the 2016 elections, President Duterte said that she was among those who supported his bid. His father, Vicente Duterte, was, after all, a cabinet member of the late dictator, whom the president described as “one of the two who stood by Marcos in his darkest hours.”
In the months leading to the 2016 elections, there were reports of a “Duterte-Marcos” tandem even when both of them had different running mates at the time — Duterte with lawmaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Marcos Jr. with the late former Sen. Miriam Santiago.
Duterte said he cannot disassociate himself from the Marcoses and has openly asked the Supreme Court to block a petition that seeks to cancel the hero’s burial for the late dictator.
Laying the ‘foundations of their return’
CARMMA said that even before Marcos Jr.’s defeat in his vice presidential bid back in 2016, the Marcoses have been slowly working “to lay the foundations of their return to power through their machinery of historical distortions to whitewash the atrocities of the late dictator’s brutal regime.”
This, the group of martial law survivors said, was funded by “no less by their ill-gotten wealth plundered from the nation’s coffers in their two decades in power.”
Others argue that the Marcoses have not really left.
Thinktank Ibon Foundation said that the hidden ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses makes the family of the late dictator the richest in the Philippines. Assuming that they only had $5 billion in 1986, the independent think tank said this could have inflated by now to at least $38.4 billion or P1.87 trillion at current exchange rates.
The estimate did not include interest on deposits, earnings from investments, and appreciation in the value of real properties and assets.
We remember, we do not forget
As it stands, the upcoming elections are not short of drama on who is running and on what public seat. President Duterte questioned her daughter’s decision in a public address, asking why she would slide down to a lower position when she was leading the survey. The president’s former aide, now Sen. Christopher Go, who was originally slated to run as vice president is now running for president. President Duterte, on the other hand, will now run for a senate seat.
But for CARMMA, what is clear is that they have “struck an alliance,” which may “cement their families’ bloody legacies but to escape accountability and to completely rewrite and distort history.”
“We remember the crimes of the Marcoses and the Dutertes all too well, and we vow to never forget as we firmly stand for truth, justice, and our rights as we say never again,” CARMMA said.
Appendix of Timeline
1992–1993
On January 14, 1992, Imelda R. Marcos and Jose P. Dans Jr. were charged with a violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or Republic Act №3019 under five criminal charges/cases: Criminal Cases №17449, 17450, 17451, 17452, 17453.
The accused entered into several contracts, with questionable lease agreements, involving the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) and Philippine General Hospital Foundation, Inc. (PGHFI).
The decision of Sandiganbayan First Division on September 24, 1993: Both Marcos and Dans were convicted of the Criminal Case Nos. 17450 and 17453, violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, supposedly sanctioning them with two-fold penalties of imprisonment from 9 years and one day as a minimum to 12 years and ten days as maximum. Both of them suffer perpetual disqualification from public office in accordance with the penalties of the R.A. №3019.
However, both of the accused are acquitted from the other three charges, specifically Criminal Case Nos. 17449, 17451, and 17452, because there are “no manifest and gross disadvantage” brought by the contract; and the deficiency of adequate notice of the acts for which she could be held liable under the law.
1998
On October 6, 1998, Motion for Reconsideration was granted to Imelda Marcos from the 1993 court decision, convicting them of Criminal Case Nos. 17450 and 17453 in violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Upon the deliberation of the Supreme Court, Imelda Marcos was acquitted.
2002
Two criminal charges were filed against Imelda Marcos, Jose Conrado Benitez, and Gilbert C. Dulay for malversation of public funds, a violation against the Article 217, paragraph 4 of the Revised Penal Code, arising from the transactions of Marcos and the other accused as officials of the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS).
The charges were based on government transactions, amounting to a total of P58 million and another P40 million of what was referred to as “confidential funds,” and “classified information,” respectively.
Respondents were acquitted of the criminal charges.
2018
The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division found Imelda Marcos guilty of seven counts of graft. For each count, she was to serve a penalty of imprisonment from six years and one month as a minimum, and eleven years as maximum, with perpetual disqualification to hold public office.
However, she was acquitted of three other criminal charges.
In the 20 years of the Marcos rule, Imelda held several government seats — Minister of MHS, Cabinet member, Metro Manila Governor, Interim Batasang Pambansa member.
2019
P267M civil case: ill-gotten wealth
Due to a defect in evidence submitted to the court, the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan junked the P267M ill-gotten wealth civil case against Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, and their cronies.
In the documents presented by the PCGG, Fe Gimenez, one of the dummies, earned only P87,000 a year as Malacanang’s social secretary. However, they also obtained that Fe’s bank statements were worth a bountiful amount of money from paying Imelda’s New York aide, and the residence of Imelda in New York — the Waldorf Towers.
The other conduit, Ignacio Gimenez, acquired real property acquisitions and corporations, which are so much more than their declared wealth.
However, the Sandiganbayan court dismissed the case, saying that the evidence presented by PCGG were all photocopies.
P102B civil case: ill-gotten wealth
Another P102-billion civil case against the Marcoses was junked by the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan due to the insufficiency of evidence.
The civil case had been going on for more than three decades, which involved the use of three bank dummies and government corporations to benefit the family of Marcos. This revolved around the main crony Roberto Benedicto, who is a close friend of Ferdinand Marcos.
Benedicto died in 2000 but the Sandiganbayan dropped him from the case because of a compromise agreement that he signed with the government.
The Sandiganbayan confirmed that DBP granted foreign currency loans worth $32M to the alleged companies but the PCGG failed to prove that the grants were irregular.
P1B civil case: ill-gotten wealth
The Sandiganbayan Fourth Division junked the civil case against the Marcoses and their alleged dummies, failing to acquire the P1 billion ill-gotten wealth of the family.
The P1 billion was allegedly earned through the earnings of Tourist Duty Free Shops Incorporated (TDFS), pocketing kickbacks from the tax exemptions.
The court dismissed the Civil Case №0008 due to the failure of the plaintiff to present “new arguments”.
In summary: There are five civil cases from PCGG v Marcos: 4 acquitted Marcoses, all due to the deficiency and insufficiency of evidence.
2021
The 34-year-old Civil Case №0011 that aims to recover ill-gotten wealth from Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, Pablo Carlos Jr, and Ricardo C. Silverio was dismissed by Sandiganbayan Fourth Division on June 30, 2021.
The court said the PCGG failed to prove its allegations by “preponderance of the evidence.”
The estimated cost of ill-gotten wealth from Marcos’ is about P500 billion ($10 billion). The case also attempted to recover 18 properties acquired by the Marcoses in different countries.
This article was released as a special issue in remembrance of the hero’s burial of Ferdinand Marcos in 2016. Read the story on Bulatlat.
