The cat is out of the bag: President Duterte wants the Congress to grant the Marcoses immunity from criminal prosecution in exchange for the return of part of the Marcos loot.

This is the hitherto hidden agenda why the President has been urging the Congress to authorize him to negotiate for the recovery of the Marcos hidden wealth despite his continuing authority under President Corazon Aquino’s Executive Order No. 1 which created the Presidential Commission on Good Government to assist the President of the Republic in retrieving the Marcos hoard.

It is well settled in Philippine jurisprudence that criminal liability is not subject to compromise.

In Chavez vs. PCGG (December 9, 1998), the Supreme Court voided the challenged compromise agreement in so far as it granted the Marcoses immunity from criminal prosecution.

A culprit who returns what he has stolen is not liberated from criminal prosecution.

It is a mockery of justice and an insult to the aggrieved sovereign people to exempt the Marcoses from criminal culpability in exchange for a few pieces of stolen gold bars or even for their entire ill-gotten hoard.

A criminal must pay for his crime despite his having belatedly returned the object of his transgression.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN