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Clearing Imeldific SKETCHES - Ana Marie Pamintuan In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos’ legitimate income from their combined salaries during their 20-year rule amounted to only P2.3 million ($304,372 at the time). The amount was manifestly disproportionate to the Marcos couple’s $356 million discovered after the EDSA revolt in 1986 deposited in Credit Suisse in Zurich, Switzerland. The accounts were opened in 1968 under dummy foundations and entities, with Ferdinand and Imelda using the names William Saunders and Jane Ryan. In November 2018, Imeldific was convicted by the Sandiganbayan of seven counts of graft in relation to the Swiss deposits. She was sentenced to a combined prison term of up to 77 years, but the anti-graft court allowed her to post P300,000 bail. This year, in a decision dated June 10, 2026, but made public only in September, the First Division of the Supreme Court reversed the conviction and cleared Imeldific. Among the reasons cited was that the Swiss bank documents – the same ones used in the 2003 SC ruling – were not properly authenticated and therefore lacked probative value, and the prosecution witnesses lacked personal knowledge of the documents’ contents. tinyurl.com/5n8dttve

Three overpriced bridges EYES WIDE OPEN - Iris Gonzales (@eyesgonzales) Do you know how many classrooms can be built with a budget of P54 million? The amount can fund the construction of more than 60 classrooms if we use the estimate of non-government organizations of roughly P860,000 per classroom. Imagine how many more students our public schools can accommodate if we build those 60 additional classrooms. But instead, this P54 million is the cost of retrofitting three short bridges in Bulacan, which really have no visible signs of damage or need for retrofitting. tinyurl.com/bv2n6hh3