SELDA: Imee Marcos and family are as buwaya as they come
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
15 August 2025
Reference: Danilo dela SELDA Vice Chairperson, +639669642643
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
SELDA: Imee Marcos and family are as buwaya as they come
“Imee Marcos and the Marcoses cannot claim to be clean. They are as ‘buwaya’ as they come.
The Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA), an organization of former political prisoners, takes exception to Imee Marcos’ attempts to portray herself and their family as an anti-corruption stalwarts by carrying around a stylized “buwaya bag”, and saying she had already “caught one,” but the rest should be hauled to jail.
“She’s trying so hard to distance herself and their family from the corrupt congressmen and other government officials who have benefited from kickbacks from anomalous flood-control projects,” said SELDA vice chairperson Danilo dela Fuente, also one of the named plaintiffs in the Hawaii class suit filed by human rights violations victims during the Marcos dictatorship. “But it was her late dictator-father and their family that landed the dubious distinction in 1986 of having been proclaimed by Guinness World Records as being responsible for ‘the greatest robbery of a government.’” Guinness based its declaration on the Philippine government’s own estimate at the time that US$860.8 million had been salted away by Ferdinand Marcos Sr., his wife Imelda, their children and cronies.
The Philippine Supreme Court has also estimated that during the two decades that the Marcos family ruled, they embezzled between $5 and $10 billion in public funds, largely hidden in foreign bank accounts and investments. Imelda Marcos was convicted by the Sandiganbayan in 2018 of seven counts of graft for having illegally funnelled some US$200 million to Swiss foundations in the 1970s using the pseudonyms “William Saunders” for Marcos and “Jane Ryan” for herself. “Unfortunately,” said Dela Fuente, “Imelda has managed to stay out of prison because the case is still on appeal at the Supreme Court.”
“Following such revelations of the Marcoses’ gargantuan wealth, SELDA spearheaded and won a class action suit in Hawaii where almost 10,000 victims of torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations under martial law sued the Marcos estate for damages,” said Dela Fuente. “The plaintiffs were awarded over US$766 million in compensatory damages, with individual plaintiffs’ awards ranging from US$150,000 to US$700,000.”
Imee Marcos herself has been named in a Wikileaks exposé of having interests in offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and elsewhere, and of failure to disclose these in her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. She has been linked to pork barrel-related issues, including the misuse of her discretionary funds as governor of Ilocos Norte and later as senator. She was also investigated in 2017 for the misuse of Php66.45 million in tobacco excise taxes.
“Not only did she benefit from Marcosian thievery under martial law, for which she has not shown a shred of remorse. She has her own dirty track record of fund misuse as a politician,” stressed Dela Fuente. “And she definitely benefits from Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s determination to wield his power to do away with the legal encumbrances to his family’s recovery of all the ill-gotten wealth they amassed during their father’s dictatorship. So far,” he said, “seven ill-gotten cases have been dismissed under her brother Ferdinand Jr.’s watch.” A total of 28 criminal cases and 43 civil and forfeiture cases were filed against the Marcoses at the Sandiganbayan from 1986 to 1995.
SELDA demanded that the Marcos family return all funds pocketed by their family. “Isoli ninyo ang ninakaw ninyo, at itigil ninyo ang kaipokrituhan, dahil kayo mismo ay mga magnanakaw ng pera ng bayan,” Dela Fuente said.
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