Former Philippine First Lady, currently reelectionist House Representative, Imelda Marcos has reportedly been convicted by the Sandiganbayan 5th Division today of “7 counts of graft for using her Cabinet position to maintain Swiss bank accounts during the Marcos regime.”
Marcos’ graft cases stemmed from complaints filed in 1991 when prosecutors alleged that the Marcos family channeled public funds into their personal accounts overseas.
This follows more than 30 years of an apparent inability of no less than two Aquino administrations — that of the late Cory Aquino from 1987 and that of her son Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III from 2010 to fast track this case. Over those years and presidencies, the murder of the late former Senator Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino Jr, was not solved nor any person of significant consequence convicted either.
This most recent achievement further highlights the truth about Philippine democracy and its justice system — that these are neither dying nor impotent respectively under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. It is an indictment of the perceptions of the Philippines as a failed state being spread by the Opposition over international media and in the initiatives they mount in international “courts” such as the International Criminal Court.