will imelda marcos really go to jail?
Manila, 9 November—I must admit that when I first saw that former First Lady Imelda Marcos, widow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was trending on Twitter, I thought that she had died.
Indeed, these days, it is far more likely for the 89-year-old matriarch of the still-powerful Marcos clan to kick the proverbial bucket than it is for her to actually face any bad developments, not while their family is in very good terms with the current administration.
So it really was quite a surprise to hear that the Sandiganbayan has actually sentenced Mrs Marcos, current representative of the 2nd District of Ilocos Norte, to 42 years of jail time in connection with—huh, of all things—seven counts of graft and corruption under her deceased husband’s rule, which spanned two decades and during which their family amassed so much wealth that she had to create Swiss private foundations to hide all of it, while her husband’s government tortured and killed thousands of government critics.
That means that, if Imelda is indeed going to jail at 89, she will be at least 131 years old when she gets out again.
This, of course, is not going to happen. Legal experts have said that Mrs Marcos can file their appeal and evade jail time on account of advanced age. This was the same argument that former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who was also defense minister during the Marcos regime, used to post bail in a non-bailable case like plunder.
Still, human rights activists have called this a symbolic win for all human rights victims during the Marcos regime.
Personally, I’m with the group that views this as frustrating. This took roughly a quarter of a century. Had this conviction made in the 1990s, it would have mattered, because Imelda would only have been in her 60s. It would have really been a ‘punishment’ because it would have legitimately deprived her of at least holding office in Leyte and Ilocos Norte.
Handed down today, it is almost moot. Handed down ahead of the elections, what are the chances that it will be milked as a ‘paawa story’ by the scion currently running for the Senate? My poor mother.
In any case, at least they can’t say that their poor mother is being trampled upon by the administration. It just horrifies me to think the Marcoses may be deliberately losing this battle so they could win the war.