“With Econg now at the helm of the Sandiganbayan, we can expect more dismissals of the
Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth cases,” said CARMMA spokesperson Judy Taguiwalo.
Econg has had a checquered record as associate justice of the Sandiganbayan, being one of those who opted to dismiss plunder charges against Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s martial law
administrator Juan Ponce Enrile. The charges were in relation to the infamous pork barrel
scam, where legislators’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) were funneled to bogus NGOs in exchange for hefty kickbacks. Econg was likewise among the Sandiganbayan justices who had earlier acquitted Sen. Bong Revilla of plunder also in relation to the PDAF scam.
It was also Econg who authored the ruling that junked six coconut levy cases against Enrile, Ferdinand Sr. and his wife Imelda as well as other Marcos cronies. The coconut levy, a tax imposed on coconut farmers during martial law, was supposed to be used to develop the coconut industry. Instead, the funds, now worth billions of pesos, were used to finance, among others, the expansion of Enrile’s business empire as well as fund Imelda’s projects such as the Miss Universe Pageant of 1974 and the construction of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
“We fear the further reversal of the people’s hard-won gains in the anti-martial law struggle,” said Taguiwalo. “But we also note that exposés of Marcosian thievery and other crimes enraged the people enough to topple the dictatorship,” she added. “There can always be a repeat of history should Marcos Jr.’s attempts to recover all of his family’s ill-gotten wealth be so gross as to leave the people with no recourse but to exercise their power to end a corrupt government.”
