Imelda’s jewelries for sale

 

Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos

This is one felicitous decision that is most welcome by the Filipino people coming from President Rodrigo Duterte. It takes political will to do it especially knowing that the president continues to have a soft heart for the family of the despot Marcos, while many Filipinos continue to harbor resentment against them.

I am of course referring to Duterte’s approval to auction off one of three jewelry collections recovered from the fleeing family when they arrived at the Honolulu International Airport during the 1986 People Power Revolution. This was particularly dubbed as the Hawaii collection consisting of 400 pieces estimated to be worth more than P700 million.

Whether or not the jewelries for sale are smaller or less expensive pieces compared to the other sequestered collections is not what matters most. What is of greater importance is that Duterte wants the proceeds to benefit the Filipinos in any way it could.

In reality, auctioning off the three jewelry collections should have been done a long time ago so that those who became victims of the repressive regime, and who has gone sooner to their graves may have enjoyed the fruits of retribution.

In fact it would have been more meaningful and symbolic had former Pres. Benigno Aquino III found the gumption to put the whole collections on the auction block during his presidency. His lack of audacity cost him the chance of getting the credit of alleviating the plight of the poor Filipinos with the proceeds that they needed so badly. It would have been a tribute to the family of a martyred patriarch that suffered so much, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Instead it is now Duterte who is getting the accolade for disposing the ill-gotten jewelries. He deserves it, but it is hoped that it won’t stop here. The people would like to see Duterte also ordering, before his term is over, the sale of the Malacañang collection of around 300 pieces that was left behind after the Marcoses fled the Palace and the Roumeliotes collection of 60 major pieces that Imelda’s Greek accomplice, Demetriou Roumeliotes, tried to spirit out of the country a few weeks after the Marcoses’ ouster.

While it is much appreciated that Duterte approved the auctioning of Imelda’s Hawaii collection based on public interest and not on friendship or political alliance, I find it somehow unreasonable, however, that the very same person that the expensive jewelry collection was sequestered from can still participate in the sale by auction. Knowing how filthy rich Imelda is, she can surely outbid the other buyers or use them to bid on her behalf. Thus, it defeats the purpose of having the jewelry collection to be taken out and away from the clutches of the avaricious former first lady.

To say that Imelda is no longer interested in her sequestered jewelries is absurd, if not a distortion of reality. It is probably what is motivating her to stay much longer in politics so she could have the chance to fulfill once more her evil desire to be reunited with her long seized treasures.

The Aquino-Marcos estrangement is about lack of remorse

President Benigno Aquino and Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos

I cannot help but make my own assessment about the Aquino-Marcos estrangement, this after Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. reportedly issued a statement, saying, it is high time to put an end to the decades-old feud between the Aquino and Marcos families.

President Benigno Aquino, on the other hand, through his Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., contradicted the Marcos statement, explaining, that the disaffection between them is not about family issues, but rather a result of an injustice by the despot Marcos against the Filipino people during the latter’s Martial Law regime.

Obviously, these are perceptions according to what suits best their sentiment without really admitting candidly what happened in the past that created a schism between them to this day.

With your indulgence, I am reprinting below the Marcos statement, as published, if only to show how scheming, but tactical, the person is in his reasoning.

“That’s something that would be good for the country. Kasi alam naman natin itong away na ito na hanggang ngayon ay tuluy-tuloy pa. Ito’y sagabal sa pagkakaisa dito sa bansa. Kailangan we have to get past it…put it behind us. Ang daming kailangang gawin,” he said.

(That’s something that would be good for the country. We all know that this feud continues up to now. This prevents us from uniting the country. We have to get past it…put it behind us. There are so many things we need to do.)

“I mean siguro sa pamilya Marcos, wala na ‘yung political fight na yan. Hindi naman ito personal. ‘Yung talagang naglalaban was my father and Ninoy Aquino, ‘60s, ‘70s pa ‘yun so dapat lampasan na natin ‘yun at hindi na ‘yan ang issue ngayon. Wala tayong makukuha sa tuluy-tuloy na pagsusumbatan na Aquino-Marcos for no good reason. We’ll get nothing out of that,” Marcos said.

(I mean, for the Marcos family, this political feud is already over. It’s not personal. It was only my father and Ninoy Aquino who fought in the ‘60s and ‘70s so we should get past it already and stop making an issue out of it. We won’t gain anything from continuing to revive the Aquino-Marcos feud for no reason. We’ll get nothing out of that.)

Marcos seems to be putting everything here in the context of politics and nothing whatsoever about the events and succeeding grim consequences of the dark days of the Martial Law.

What is even worse is that, while Marcos wants the country to move on, there is not even a slight trace of remorse from him, nor from any of his family, who are mainly back in the country’s political mainstream, about his father’s atrocious regime.

While the Aquinos may no longer find justice for their martyred father, Ninoy, President Aquino, however, has not lost sight in his quest for justice for the human rights victims during the Martial Law years and even going to the extent of trying to recover the Marcoses alleged ill-gotten wealth. It is the least that he can do now until his term ends in 2016.

Hopefully the Filipino people will come to realize who the Marcoses are really and why they are back in politics, with Imelda, a congresswoman from Ilocos Norte, not mincing words that she wants her son, Sen. Marcos, to run for president.

But for the Marcoses not to show any remorse and who continue believing that the despot Marcos patriarch did not do any wrong is a wedge that will forever alienate the Aquinos.

It should also be a wedge making the Filipino people beware of the emerging power-hungry new Marcos generation, thus, repudiating them in any political exercise in this country.

Their stay in politics is mainly to serve themselves and their individual interests, all at the expense of the Filipino people.

The case of the junked P51-B suit vs the Marcoses

 

The Marcoses (Bongbong, Imelda and Imee) back in the political scene

It is bad enough that some members of the Marcos family have come back politically strong and influential and, seemingly, guilt-free.

It is even worst that the Sandiganbayan, in a ruling penned by Associate Justice Samuel Martires, has junked a P51-billion damage suit filed 25 years ago against the despot, Ferdinand Marcos, his widow Imelda, and some cohorts accused of dollar salting.

The Sandiganbayan (roughly the Tagalog translation for “People’s Advocate”) is a special court in the country which was established under Presidential Decree No. 1606. Its rank is equivalent to the Court of Appeals. The court consists of 14 Associate Justices and 1 Presiding Justice.

While the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), acting as complainants, accused Marcos, et al, of “misappropriation and theft of public funds, plunder of the nation’s wealth, extortion, blackmail, bribery, embezzlement and other acts of corruption, betrayal of public trust, and brazen abuse of power, at the expense and to the grave and irreparable damage of plaintiff and the Filipino people”, the ruling, however, cited the “absence of evidence” to prove the respondent’s guilt and culpability.

“A mere allegation is not enough. It must be supported by proof, otherwise it will just remain a story,” the Sandiganbayan magistrates said, referring to OSG’s and PCGG’s allegations.

Now, it has been reported that the government, through Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz, will be filing an appeal about the dismissal claiming that the Sandiganbayan seemed to have forgotten the realities of martial law and the impunities committed by Marcos and company by which the country got robbed of its resources.

Furthermore, Cadiz said the Sandiganbayan decision seemed to have exonerated the Marcoses crime, saying, “It’s like Holocaust did not happen,” referring to the Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews during World War II.

But, Cadiz seems to be missing the point. The point is that no matter how much you compare Marcos and his disgraceful and disastrous past with other deplorable crimes, the fact remains that if you want conviction against some people, make sure that you have all the solid goods against the subjects to nail them well with.

The money is too large and the culprits too notorious to go half-cocked in pursuing justice.

Unless full proof evidences are unearthed further to pin Marcos and cohorts for the crime allegedly committed, Cadiz and the government might as well kiss the P51-B lawsuit goodbye. I could not see any favorable progress in a case that happened 25 years ago and the Marcoses back in power.

But, let this be a lesson learned by PNoy and his Justice department, if they want success in running after corrupt officials in government, as they are doing now.

What is mostly needed is a ‘smoking gun.’