Imelda Marcos asks anti-graft court to allow her to leave for China

MANILA, Philippines—Ilocos Norte Rep. and former First Lady Imelda Marcos has sought the Sandiganbayan’s permission to fly to China where she had been invited to speak before a group of women.

Marcos, in her urgent motion to travel filed before the Fifth Division, said she would travel to Shanghai from November 13 to 22 and would stay at the Peninsula Hotel in Shanghai.

Marcos said she was invited by the Financial Times for its Women at the Top Conference and Dinner scheduled for November 15.

The invitation showed that she was invited to attend as a VIP guest at the conference, which would coincide with the announcement of the FT 2011 Top 50 Women in World Business Ranking.

The conference is intended to bring to gather leaders to discuss the role of women in business, their contributions to development and growth and their legacy as innovators in the workplace and beyond.

According to Marcos, she had sought and gotten permission from the anti-graft court in earlier instances to travel for work-related and medical reasons.

In all of these cases, she returned to the country without fail, she said.

She also said her right to travel has been guaranteed in the Constitution. Her trip to China would also not have any impact on the country’s concerns for national security, public safety and public health, she further said.

“Accused has no intention to evade the due course of justice and the processes of this Honorable Court,” she said.

She added that she would be willing to comply with all of the conditions that the court might impose for her travel.

Marcos, the widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is facing several cases before the Sandiganbayan related to the government’s effort to recover the ill-gotten wealth that her family and associates supposedly amassed when her husband ruled the country.