Imelda Marcos: Justice too slow
By Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:14:00 09/04/2008
Filed Under: Crime, Law & Justice,Graft & Corruption
MANILA, Philippines—Former First Lady Imelda Marcos is not happy with the pace of the marathon hearings of her 10 graft cases at the Sandiganbayan.
In a motion filed Wednesday, her lawyers, Benjamin and Ray Montri Santos, pointed out that the dates set for the cases were “too far apart, like two or three months apart, or even longer.”
They also said the prosecution was committing duplicity by asking a witness to testify based on the contents of an affidavit which has not been marked as evidence.
Last year, the widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos invoked her right to a speedy trial and asked the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division to expedite the proceedings by conducting marathon hearings of her cases.
The graft cases were in connection with her alleged management of five Marcos dummy foundations believed to have been used to hide $590 million of ill-gotten wealth from 1968 to 1971.
In asking the court to expedite the proceedings, her lawyers stressed that Marcos has been in a state of “anxiety and serious concern” with the pendency of the cases. The court officially started to hear the graft charges in 2000.
Reaching a consensus with the prosecution, the court has dedicated four days a week to hear the cases.
But such scheme only resulted in the further delay of the hearings, the lawyers said, citing the April 22, 23 and 24 hearing dates, which had to be reset to June 16, 17, 18 and 19 as the prosecution’s witness had to attend to a personal matter.
However, the June settings were also postponed to September 15, 16, 17 and 18 because the prosecutor handling the cases had to be hospitalized due to a serious ailment.
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