Another win for the Marcoses

Another day, another legal victory for the Marcoses. Last Monday, the Sandiganbayan junked a suit seeking P102 billion in moral and exemplary damages from the Marcoses and 11 co-defendants tagged as their cronies.

Justices Lorifel Pahimna, Oscar Herrera Jr. and Michael Frederick Musngi of the Sandiganbayan’s Second Division said that in 30 years of litigation, prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence to establish the guilt of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, his widow Imelda and 11 other defendants.

The suit was filed on July 31, 1987 by the Presidential Commission on Good Government. The PCGG implicated the defendants in the alleged grant of behest loans, unlawful tax breaks and loan condonations to several companies and dummy firms, mostly owned by the late ambassador Roberto Benedicto.

Did the PCGG and state prosecutors truly bungle the case? Did other reasons drive the decision of the Second Division?

After the systematic gross human rights violations and the accumulation of mindboggling unexplained wealth during the dictatorship, consider where the Marcoses are now. The dictator is buried in the heroes’ cemetery. His widow Imelda has finally been convicted of graft, but she remains free and may never see the inside of a prison cell once she whips out the surefire weapons of Philippine VIPs to foil incarceration: a wheelchair and a neck brace. Eldest daughter Imee is a senator; only son Ferdinand Jr. is continuing his quest to become vice president.

Disappointed people may say that there ought to be a law. But there are in fact a lot of laws to pin down those who steal from public coffers and betray public trust. What’s lacking is the application of the law with efficiency and integrity.

The government is reportedly planning to appeal the ruling. Let’s hope the effort will lead to a different court decision. Otherwise, this latest legal defeat reinforces the perception that in this country, plunder pays.