Martial law survivors fear that the appointment of Geraldine Faith Econg could reverse hard-won gains in the anti-martial law struggle.

By DOMINIC GUTOMAN
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — A network of martial law survivors and advocates expressed dismay at the appointment of Geraldine Faith Econg as the new presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan.

Sandiganbayan is a special court tasked to hear and decide cases involving graft, corruption, plunder, and the recovery of ill-gotten wealth acquired through corruption, committed by public officers and employees.

“With Econg now at the helm of the Sandiganbayan, we can expect more dismissals of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth cases,” said Judy Taguiwalo, convenor of Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA) in a statement.

Econg authored the ruling that junked six coconut levy cases against Enrile, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., and his wife Imelda Marcos, and other Marcos cronies.

Sandiganbayan cited the failure of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), represented by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), to move the cases forward to trial in the span of 37 years.

“As usual, the Marcoses and their ilk have benefited from the purposefully snail-paced Sandiganbayan court processes by invoking the right to speedy trial,” they said in a statement last December 21.

The coconut levy is a tax imposed on coconut farmers during Martial Law, supposedly for the development of the coconut industry. However, CARMMA said that 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.

Read: Return coco levy to rightful owners, groups demand
Read: For Filipino farmers, Danding Cojuangco left a legacy of exploitation and oppression
Read: Farmers dare presidentiables to recover, return coco levy

Data from CARMMA reveals at least nine Marcos ill-gotten wealth cases have been dismissed since the start of the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Among the significant cases handled by Econg was the dismissal of plunder charges against Juan Ponce Enrile, who was among the martial law administrators of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. She was also among the justices who voted to acquit Senator Bong Revilla of plunder, in relation to the high profile pork barrel scam.

The pork barrel scam was the funding of “ghost projects” through the legislators’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), a lump-sum discretionary fund granted to each member of the Congress, funneled to fake foundations and non-government organizations under the wing of the JLN Group of Companies, the holding company of Janet Lim Napoles.

CARMMA fears that the appointment of Econg could reverse hard-won gains in the anti-martial law struggle.

“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,” Taguiwalo added.

Econg was appointed as an associate justice of the Sandiganbayan in 2016. Prior to that, she was the presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 9 in Cebu City from 2004 to 2010. She is set to retire from the Sandiganbayan on August 6, 2037. (RTS, RVO)