Of Beauty Queens and Thieves

What do former Philipppine First Lady Imelda Romualdez- Marcos and US- born Fil-Am student Christa Olandria have in common?


Both are obviously beautiful Filipinas who at some point in their lives have reigned as beauty queens; Imelda being a one- time Miss Manila courtesy of the late Manila Mayor Arsenio "Arsenic" Lacson (who was once rumored to be Imee's father) and Christa as the reigning Miss Rutgers University, that State University in New Jersey whose women's NCAA basketball team brought the downfall of colorful radio personality, the "racist" Don Imus months earlier.

Both have held elective positions with Imelda being a one- time Governor, Assemblyman and Congressman in the Philippines and Christa as the Rutgers Livingston College Class President of 2007 on the other side of the globe.

And both are being accused of robbery and facing charges in court although their similarities end there--

For Imelda is the Mother of All Thieves; she shared the infamous distinction with her husband, the late Philippine Dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos as the biggest klepto in the Guinness Book of World Records while Christa is a small- time crook having been arrested with her boyfriend stealing students laptops, iPods and what have you from the Rutgers Dormitory lockers.

But unlike Christa who will be facing jail time for sure, the Filipina Iron Butterfly is still flying high having beaten another case in court just a few days ago that was reported in all the major news channels all over the world.

That’s one less case for her in dozens and dozens of similar cases that she’s been facing all these years which also reminds me that she has been once convicted by the Sandiganbayan and sentenced to 12+ years in prison in the 1990s but that conviction was subsequently overturned.

So seeing her in a prison "terno" remains an elusive dream for many Filipinos who suffered and continue to suffer until today as a result of the more than 20- years of Conjugal Dictatorships that she and her husband authored.

And there lies the injustice…

When will this charade of going after the Marcoses and their cronies’ human rights abuses and ill- gotten wealth in Philippine Courts end?

It’s just a waste of taxpayers money prosecuting them knowing that with their power, influence and money they could easily buy their way out of spending a single day in jail. These cases against them will only go nowhere.


The justice system in our country was made and designed only to prosecute and persecute the small, poor and lowly Filipinos like you and me. It is a given that justice in the Philippines only works in favor of the rich and powerful.

To put it simply, the justice system in the Philippines sucks!

It’s about time to stop this Moro- moro and save every peso that the government is paying for the inept lawyers and corrupt partisan judges not to mention the high costs of manpower and hours lost in the litigation of these cases in our vain effort in trying to show the world that we are pursuing the cases against the plunderers of our nation no matter what.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the sad truth though. We already know what will be the end/result of these pseudo- attempts to run after them anyway. It is time to re- examine our approach and position with regards to these problems and save us from further shame and embarrassment as a race and people.

I say, let bygones be bygones…

Let us bury the ghosts of those who perished in the fight against the dictatorship into oblivion.

Let us forget their names and desecrate their memories by dragging the cases pending in courts for eternity against the persons responsible for the Philippines’ darkest hours.

Let Imelda Marcos and her ilk live their lives and flaunt their wealth right in our faces and preach to us their kind of justice.

Let Imelda Marcos and her ilk teach everyone one of us how to plunder the government's coffer, trample the rights of one’s fellowmen with impunity, get away with it and live happily ever after.

God Bless Us All.