Laguatan nowadays spends his time at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where his academic exercise of seven years ago is coming to life in a federal courtroom. Behind the mahogany doors of the courtroom, jury selection began last week in the fraud and racketeering trial of Imelda Marcos.
"Now I see her on trial and I can't imagine how this has become a reality," said Laguatan, who is the special counsel to the Philippine
Commission for Good Government, an agency created by the government of Corazon C. Aquino to investigate the Marcoses.
Marcos, 60, is charged with plundering more than $160 million from the Philippine government and illegally concealing the assets by buying U.S. real estate and art collections. She also is charged with fraudulently obtaining $165 million in loans from U.S. banks.
Also facing trial is Adnan Khashoggi, 54, a prominent Saudi businessman charged with helping the Marcoses conceal their illegal investments. They were indicted in October 1988 along with Ferdinand Marcos, who died last September.
Imelda Marcos and Khashoggi last week sat in a whitewashed conference room, surrounded by nine lawyers and U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan, who interviewed potential jurors for the trial, which is expected to last four months.
The lawyers will set forth their cases in opening arguments later this week. In the meantime, they and their public relations representatives are scrapping to sway public opinion.
Marcos' attorney, Gerry Spence, said that "propaganda" put out by the Aquino administration made it impossible for Marcos to get a fair trial. He has portrayed his client as being unfairly associated with political activity of the notorious dictator simply because they were married.
"In this country and in this legal system one doesn't become a criminal by sleeping with one's husband," Spence said on NBC's Today show.
