Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos, convicted of seven counts of graft on Friday by the Sandiganbayan 5th Division, filed Monday a motion for leave of court to avail herself of post-conviction remedies before the Sandiganbayan 5th Division.
The motion is scheduled for hearing on Friday at 8:30 a.m., the camp of the legislator and former first lady said
Her lawyer, former Court of Appeals Justice Manuel Lazaro, has also entered his appearance before the court, to replace lawyer Robert Sison, who represented the 89-year-old Mrs. Marcos during the trial, since he is confined in a hospital.
A motion for leave of court is a remedy for permission obtained from a court to take some action which, without such permission, would not be allowable—for instance, to file an amended pleading or to plead several pleas.
On Friday, hours after the Sandiganbayan ruling was released in the absence of the accused and her lawyer—for which the two have been ordered to explain within 30 days why they were not around despite sufficient notice of proclamation—Marcos earlier said she would be filing a motion for reconsideration for the reversal of her conviction.
The Sandiganbayan found her guilty in seven counts of graft for using her Cabinet position to maintain Swiss bank accounts during the Marcos administration from 1966 to 1986.
With her conviction, Marcos was sentenced to imprisonment of six years and one month to 11 years for each of the seven counts, with perpetual disqualification from public office.
In related developments:
• The Philippine National Police on Monday said they were taking into consideration the health of Marcos in complying with the arrest order if one should be issued soon by the court.
“In this case, we don’t see any threats with her because first and foremost, because of her old age and because she is a woman,” Albayalde told reporters during the press conference.
The PNP chief made the remarks amid allegations they were favoring the Marcos matriarch as compared to what they have done in the case of Senator Antonio Trillanes.
• In the House, House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez appealed to critics of the Marcos family to also look at major accomplishments then President Ferdinand Marcos., who declared martial law in 1972 and lifted it in 1981.
Suarez made his statement following the possible order by Sandiganbayan to arrest the legislator, who has filed her certificate of candidacy for governor of her home province of Ilocos Norte.
“Some of these [Marcos] critics do nothing but look for issues against the late President. How about the good things that they have done?” Suarez told reporters.
“Remember at the onset of the Edsa revolution, the premise was that anything that is Marcos is bad, which is wrong,” added Suarez.
• In the Senate, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, whose father was jailed during martial law, said Marcos might still be sent to prison even at her age of 89.
“Even at an advanced age, a criminal can still be sent to prison,” said Pimentel, when sought to comment on the statement of Albayalde the PNP had to consider the convict’s age and health condition if a warrant for her arrest was issued.
“Only children are exempted,” added Pimentel while referring to the country’s juvenile justice laws.
But Sen. Francis Escudero, whose father was in the Cabinet of Marcos, Mrs. Marcos could not be arrested as yet due to the absence of an arrest warrant.
“She was out on bail. The court did not order to arrest her. And that is not final. As of now, there is no warrant of arrest to talk about but let us wait for Gen. Albayalde if she will be arrested or not,” said Escudero.
Suarez welcomed the statement of Albayalde to consider the age and health of Marcos should an order to arrest her were out.
“That might sound very reasonable, considering that she is already 89…” Suarez said.
Suarez urged the critics to focus on addressing the rising number of unemployed Filipinos.
“Leave it that way. I hope we have a closure on this,” said Suarez.
“Let us pay attention to the increasing number of unemployment. This is unusually big, Christmas is coming,” said Suarez.
Albayalde explained they have not sent police officers to Mr. Marcos’ door to avoid pre-empting the final order of the court.
“As of this time, none yet, even advanced coordination, none. It’s because we don’t want to move in advance or speculate (on) the announcement of the decision for her, but we heard that the decision will be coming out and if they release it, it will be the CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) who will lead the arrest,” Albayalde said.
Albayalde noted that in Trillanes’ case, they enforced preemptive measures pending the issuance of the arrest warrant but clarified that not all police officers deployed at the Senate were tasked to guard the senator. With PNA
READ: Ombudsman wants Imelda convicted for graft cases