Philippines: A Big-Bucks Verdict

  • Imelda Marcos will now have to find her shoe money somewhere else. She suffered a stinging — and costly — legal setback last week, when the Swiss Supreme Court cleared the way for the return to the Philippines of $350 million deposited in Swiss banks by her husband, former President Ferdinand Marcos. The court ruled that the money, which has been frozen in several banks since the Marcoses fled Manila in February 1986, would be returned to the country if a Philippine criminal court issued a legally binding verdict against the couple.

    President Corazon Aquino hailed the ruling as a "victory for the people." Neither Marcos, who died in exile in September 1989, nor his widow has ever been charged with a criminal offense in the Philippines, but prosecutors expressed confidence that the problem could be sidestepped by rulings in the civil suits filed against the Marcoses.