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By Rommel C. Lontayao, Reporter
Former First Lady Imelda Marcos was acquitted
Monday of 32 counts of illegal transfer of wealth abroad amounting
to about $863 million after a Manila court handed down its decision
on the 17-year trial.
Marcos and two other defendants, Roberto
Benedicto (who is now deceased) and Hector Rivera, were accused of
unlawfully opening dollar accounts in Switzerland to hide the
Marcoses’ alleged ill-gotten wealth.
In his 44-page decision, Judge Silvino Pampilo
Jr. of Branch 26 of the Manila Regional Trial Court said the
prosecution failed to “submit any documentary proof that the three
Swiss banks from where the alleged dollar remittances emanated held
the dollar notes for accused Marcos.”
The court also found that the prosecution failed
to prove its charge of conspiracy among the accused and was unable
to present witnesses who can give relevant testimonies to the case.
Pampilo emphasized that the prosecution should
have presented enough evidence, noting that the case “must rise or
fall on the strength of its own evidence, never on the weakness or
absence of that of the defense.”
The government’s case claimed that 32 bank
transfers to foreign accounts in Switzerland between 1968 and 1976
were carried out illegally by Ferdinand Marcos, his wife and
Bendicto.
The court recognized the length of time spent on
the case trial, which started when former Solicitor General
Francisco Chavez filed the cases against Marcos in 1991 for
allegedly violating Central Bank foreign exchange restrictions.
“The Court is cognizant of the fact that the
government has expended untold time, effort, and money in the
prosecution of these cases, but the accused has the Constitutional
presumption of innocence. The prosecution in these cases failed to
discharge the burden of proof required in criminal cases,” the
decision stated.
Imelda pleased
Imelda Marcos, now 78, smiled broadly as she
walked from court, saying “I am happy because the truth of the
Marcoses is going to be justice.”
Of the 901 cases filed against her in the early
1990s just 10 remain, her lawyers said.
Her late husband ruled the Philippines for 20
years, then fled into exile in 1986 with his family after he was
overthrown in a “people power” revolution led by the Roman
Catholic Church and breakaway elements of the military.
At the time it was claimed he had milked the
country of between $5 billion and $10 billion.
After a 22-year search for the so-called hidden
Marcos wealth, the government has only managed to retrieve 683
million from several Swiss bank accounts.
The latest case was filed in 1991 by the
Philippine government.
-- With AFP
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