President Rodrigo Duterte cannot absolve Ilocos Sur Governor Imelda “Imee” Marcos and former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. as sinless because they have been for a long time and until now culpable beneficiaries of the ill-gotten hoard of their father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Although they were teenagers when martial law was declared in September 1972, they attained the age of majority shortly after the proclamation of martial law and they were already adults during the height of the martial law regime.

Imee and Bongbong celebrated their 18th birthdays in 1973 and 1975, respectively, and they were old enough when the documented atrocities and plunder were committed by the “conjugal dictatorship” of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.

When Imee Marcos headed the Kabataang Barangay after she was handpicked by then President Marcos, she was accused of the murder of Archimedes Trajano who was reportedly killed by her security escorts and found dead two (2) days after an open forum where Trajano challenged the credentials of Imee Marcos.

In August 31, 1977, Trajano, a student of the Mapua Institute of Technology, questioned during a meeting at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Imee’s capacity to lead the national youth organization which she assumed as the presidential daughter.

The Hawaii District Court awarded $4.16 million to the Trajano family in 1991, which award was affirmed by the US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit Court in 1992.

The effort of the Trajano family to enforce in the Philippines the foreign judgment was quashed by the Philippine Supreme Court on the technicality of a defective substituted service of summons to Imee Marcos who claimed that she was then a resident of Singapore when the summons was served at the Alexandra Homes in Pasig City, her reported address.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN