No immunity for Marcos wealth, Duterte urged

Rep Edcel Lagman. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/EDWIN BACASMAS

“The cat is out of the bag!”

Rep. Edcel Lagman made the remark on Wednesday in reaction to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call on Congress to grant immunity from criminal prosecution to the Marcos family in exchange for the return of part of their ill-gotten wealth estimated to be in the billions of dollars.

“This is the hitherto hidden agenda why the President has been urging the Congress to authorize him to negotiate for the recovery of the Marcos hidden wealth,” he added.

Lagman and fellow opposition lawmakers said the Marcos family’s supposed offer was obviously not made out of charity but to erase their criminal culpability in amassing ill-gotten wealth.

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, who is not a member of the opposition bloc but staunchly anti-Marcos, said “escaping liability and accountability, as well as a barefaced revision of history” was the real intention of the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

“We will oppose this move every step of the way,” he said.

Mr. Duterte told reporters on Tuesday the Marcoses “will not agree to return (the money if) you have them jailed.”

He said he could not act independently of other branches of government to grant immunity to the Marcoses.

“So, I said they [lawmakers] have to craft a law on that and that is immunity. If I were a Marcos, why would I return the (money) if you’re going to have me jailed? I’d rather reserve it (for) my children and grandchildren.”

Lagman said getting a part or even the “entire ill-gotten hoard” of the Marcoses in exchange for immunity would be “a mockery of justice and an insult to the aggrieved sovereign people.”

Criminal

“A criminal must pay for his crime despite his having belatedly returned the object of his transgression,” he said.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella on Tuesday asked Congress to set the parameters for negotiations between the President and the Marcoses, “taking into account concerns raised by critics and the citizenry.”

“It would be best if we all work together for final justice, closure and national reconciliation,” he said.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has recovered at least P170 billion from the Marcoses and their cronies, including secret Swiss bank deposits, shares of stock, real estate, art pieces and jewelry. The PCGG estimates the Marcoses stashed between $5 billion to $10 billion during Marcos’ 20-year rule.

Justice and accountability

Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat Jr. said the quest for the Marcos wealth was for “more than just the money.”

“It’s about justice and accountability for the crimes against the people during Martial Law—the killings, the torture, the suppression of freedoms and the degradation of our democratic institutions,” Baguilat said.

Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin said granting immunity to the Marcoses would send “a wrong signal—that committing a crime will pay off in the end as justice is negotiable by the powers that be.”