Imelda defying SC order, says PCGG

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) threatened yesterday to work for the arrest of former First Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos because of her continued refusal to vacate a sequestered mansion in Leyte.

PCGG Commissioner Ruben Carranza Jr. said that until now, Mrs. Marcos has refused to comply with the temporary restraining order (TRO) which the Supreme Court issued last Dec. 7 for her security guards to pull out from the property.

"If they will continue to defy the order, we will seek to have them, including Mrs. Marcos, punished by the Supreme Court," Carranza said.

The mansion, which stands on a 14-hectare lot in Mrs. Marcos’ Leyte hometown of Tolosa, was among the Marcos assets which the PCGG sequestered in March 1986 following the downfall of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos during the EDSA Revolution.

The PCGG had been renting out the swimming pool and golf course in the property until last October when Mrs. Marcos deployed private security guards there. The guards allowed PCGG employees to enter the premises but not the agency’s lessees.

Mrs. Marcos had questioned the sequestration with the Sandiganbayan on the ground that only one PCGG commissioner signed the writ of sequestration instead of the required two signatories.

Last February, the anti-graft court ruled in favor of Mrs. Marcos and lifted the sequestration. This apparently encouraged her to deploy the security guards.

The PCGG filed a motion for reconsideration with the Supreme Court which subsequently issued the TRO. The PCGG said the Sandiganbayan’s lifting of the sequestration is not yet final and executory.