Atom holds Edsa rally, hits SC reversal of Imelda Marcos’ conviction

MANILA, Philippines — An anti-Marcos coalition staged a rally at the Edsa Shrinen on Monday, the 54th anniversary of the declaration of martial law.

The rallyists also denounced the recent Supreme Court (SC) ruling overturning former first lady Imelda R. Marcos’ conviction for  graft cases related to alleged ill-gotten wealth.

Monday’s rally also marked the second iteration of Sept. 21 protests which began last year over a multi-billion corruption scandal involving flood control projects.

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READ: ‘No more Marcos part 2’, says priest ahead of 40th Edsa anniversary

Before the culmination of the rally at the historic monument, the August Twenty One Movement (Atom) held a motorcade which began at the Times Street residence of the late former President Corazon Aquino and her husband Ninoy, whose assassination in 1983 eventually sparked the People Power Revolution which toppled the Marcos dictatorship. 

The motorcade also stopped by at the SC headquarters in Manila, with some of the Atom members briefly stopping by to wave their yellow flags in front of the high court.

This quiet act of protest was made after the SC overturned the 2018 Sandiganbayan decision finding the 97-year old former first lady guilty of seven counts of graft tied to Swiss foundations holding roughly $200 million in alleged stolen wealth.

“The ruling turned on technicalities: unamended charges, unauthenticated documents, a legal definition of ‘business’,” Atom said in a statement on Sunday.

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“Not one ground disputed that the money was stolen; that was already settled in a separate civil case.”

The group also noted that the Sandiganbayan allowed bail for Imelda despite her conviction.

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“At 97, Imelda Marcos never spent a day in prison despite a conviction that once carried up to 77 years,” the group said.

It also slammed the anti-graft court’s recent dismissal of the remaining ill-gotten wealth cases against former president Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. and the former first lady as the Presidential Commission on Good Government, which is mandated to recover the alleged stolen wealth of Marcoses, manifested that it would no longer present evidence.

“Taken together, these rulings read not as isolated outcomes but as the final clearing of a decades-long ledger, delivered while a Marcos sits in Malacañang,” Atom said. 

“This is impunity wearing a robe,” it added.

Martial law was officially declared on Sept. 21, 1972 and was publicly declared on Sept. 23 the same year by Marcos Sr. to quell what he then said was growing threats from the Maoist insurgents and Islamic separatists.

At least 70,000 were wrongly imprisoned and 3,200 people were killed during the martial law, according to Amnesty International.