Imelda Marcos wins court fight, completes political comeback
Imelda Marcos wins court fight, completes political comeback
MANILA (Reuter): Imelda Marcos completed her amazing political comeback yesterday when the Philippines Supreme Court rejected a protest against her victory in May national elections, paving the way for her to take her seat in Congress.
The former first lady who fled the country in disgrace in 1986 with her late husband Ferdinand Marcos, cleared a major obstacle to her return to power when the court threw out the protest by defeated incumbent congressman Cirilo Montejo.
The court, voting 9-6, rejected Montejo's protest "with finality for lack of merit", according to a court resolution released to reporters.
"Thank God, the Supreme Court of the Philippines respected and upheld the overwhelming mandate of the people," Marcos said in a statement after the court ruling was announced.
Marcos, sentenced to 18 years in jail in 1993 for corruption, ran for a congressional seat in her home province of Leyte in the May elections and defeated Montejo by more than 70,000 votes.
The watchdog Commission on Elections stopped her taking the seat, saying she failed to meet residency requirements, but the court nullified the ruling last month and upheld her victory.
Montejo appealed for a reconsideration of the court's decision, which the tribunal rejected on Wednesday.
Imelda Marcos, 66, is out on bail while appealing against a conviction for corruption.
Wednesday's ruling was the latest twist in the bizarre saga of a former Manila beauty queen once adored by millions of Filipinos and then reviled, accused of helping her husband plunder the economy during their 20 years in power.
A 1986 popular revolt ousted Marcos from power and forced the family to flee into exile in Hawaii, where the former president died in 1989.
Imelda Marcos returned to the Philippines in 1991 and ran unsuccessfully for president the following year, finishing fifth in a seven-way race won by now incumbent Fidel Ramos.
Yesterday's ruling would have no effect on her prison conviction, court sources said.
If the Supreme Court eventually reaffirms that conviction, she will be automatically ousted from the 201-member House of Representatives and will have to serve her sentence, the sources said.
Besides the 1993 conviction, Marcos still faces more than 100 other criminal and civil suits on charges ranging from tax evasion to illegal money transfers and corruption.
Montejo, who belongs to Ramos' ruling coalition, can still appeal to the House election tribunal, which also has jurisdiction over poll protests.
But cases before the tribunal usually take years to resolve. In several past cases, its decision came after the term of the contested post had lapsed.
The Supreme Court decision was the second major legal victory for a woman known around the world for her extravagance, her lavish shopping sprees and the more than 3,000 pairs of designer shoes she left behind at the presidential palace when she and her husband fell from power.
In July 1991, while still living as an exile in the United States, a New York jury acquitted her of racketeering charges arising from her alleged looting of $200 million from the Philippine treasury to buy Manhattan real estate, jewels and art works.
"My life is that of a fairy tale, like 'Cinderella' and 'Alice in Wonderland' all combined," she once said. "The realities of the life of Marcos and Imelda are stranger than fiction."