CORRUPTION Syndromes of Corruption

Oligarchs and Clans 141
election fraud – backed up where necessary by violence – and selfenrichment
by presidential cronies were common. Both the state and
businesses depended on American capital, and the state was further
weakened by persistent guerrilla warfare in some provinces. Political
parties were weak, personalized, and all but indistinguishable on ideological
grounds; the real competition was among factions seeking to elect
friendly presidents who could grant access to credit, foreign aid, and tax
and tariff favors (Stanley, 1974, as cited in Hutchcroft, 1991 at n. 19;
Hutchcroft, 1991, 1998; Batalla, 2000; Kang, 2002a).
When Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos became President and First Lady
in 1965 their joint net worth was only about US$7,000. By 1986 that figure
had climbed to between US$5 and 10 billion. Martial law, beginning in
1972, made it easier for Marcos to enrich himself and his cronies. For
example, he imposed a special tax on coconuts and copra to be collected by
an agency run by Eduardo Conjuangco, a member of his inner circle. With
the proceeds Conjuangco acquired a bank, using one of its subsidiaries to
buy coconut processing facilities. Marcos then ordered that subsidies once
available across the industry be restricted to that subsidiary, creating
‘‘a near monopoly over the export of coconuts and copra’’ (Wedeman,
1997a: 471). Similar maneuvers created a sugar exporting monopoly for
crony Robert Benedicto; eventually his firm was reorganized into a quasiregulatory
body empowered to set domestic prices. Marcos backers
Herminio Disini and Lucio Tan put competing cigarette companies out
of business with the help of favorable import–export policies; kickbacks
and equity interests in such dealings flowed to Marcos himself (Aquino,
1987;Hawes,1987: chs.2,3;Wedeman,1997a: 471; Chaikin, 2000).
Imelda Marcos not only became an international symbol of conspicuous
consumption but also held a business empire of her own. She helped
channel foreign aid, bribe income, and funds from organized crime into a
series of bank accounts and asset funds. As Mayor of Metro Manila,
Minister of Human Settlements, and head of a regional development
authority she was in a position to award lucrative construction contracts
in exchange for a percentage of the action. But the largest share of the
wealth likely came from outright theft: during the Marcoses’ reign an
estimated US$5 billion disappeared from the national treasury.
Ferdinand Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989, but in 1993 Imelda brought
his body back for reburial and continued her attempts to re-enter politics.
Imelda was convicted, but not imprisoned, as a result of a 1993 corruption
trial; late in the 1990s she was charged with embezzling US$680
million. In 2003 the Philippine Supreme Court ruled that those funds,
held in Swiss bank accounts, had been stolen, and that Imelda would have
to stand trial. At the same time she was facing another ten counts of