Lacking a Refuge, Marcos Open to Lawsuits, Probes

WASHINGTON — Panama’s refusal to grant refuge to Ferdinand E. Marcos has left him a prime target for American lawsuits and criminal investigations, raising new questions about the scope of the “safe haven” promised the ousted Philippine leader when he fled to the United States, Administration officials and other experts said Friday.

These observers, who refused to be named, said that the former president and his wife, Imelda, have been served with at least 10 civil lawsuits since he moved this week from the security of Honolulu’s Hickam Air Force Base to a rented beachfront home on the main Hawaiian island of Oahu. His American legal situation is deteriorating as daily disclosures link him ever more closely to U.S. investments allegedly made with stolen money, they said.

And some have concluded that Marcos eventually could be caught in a growing web of federal criminal investigations that began in the East and now stretches “from coast to coast to coast,” one Administration official said.

Now He’s ‘Fair Game’

“Things are getting awfully complicated,” one expert said Monday, shortly before the Marcoses left their bungalow at Hickam. “He’d agreed to accept service in three (legal) cases while he was on the base, but no more. When he’s off, he’s fair game for anyone.”

The legal threats raise the prospect, however remote, that the 69-year-old Marcos could be denied access to his reported billions pending settlement of the mountain of lawsuits filed against him, and could even be brought to criminal trial--unless he finds refuge outside the United States.

So far, that refuge has eluded him, and Marcos now worries that he “will spend the rest of his life giving depositions,” one expert said.

The gravity of those problems was not apparent when Marcos and a retinue of 89 relatives and aides went to Hawaii on Feb. 26 under a White House pledge that the former president could live in “dignity” in the United States.

Guarantee in Question

That pledge officially remains unshaken. But what one official calls a “steamroller” of detailed revelations about the leader’s 20-year reign has triggered widespread public anger against the Marcoses and thrown the scope of that guarantee--never entirely clear--into some question.

Marcos was shielded from most lawsuits during his monthlong stay at Hickam under rules that allow base commanders to banish undesirables such as “insurance salesmen, solicitors and process-servers,” one official said.

Since then, however, the United States has avoided involvement in the civil suits seeking to recoup the real estate and other assets that Marcos allegedly has hoarded in the United States.

“We’ve told Marcos up to now that he does not--repeat, does not--have diplomatic status in the United States,” one official said. “We’ve told him that former heads of state are held to immunity from prosecution for official acts, but not for personal acts or private business dealings.

“It is up to a court to decide what’s an ‘official’ act and what’s not.”

Subject to Attachment

That “acts-of-state” doctrine frees Marcos from liability for some past misdeeds. But neither the doctrine nor the White House can stop a U.S. court from attaching the Marcos family’s current income, from whatever source, until the billions in claims against the former leader are settled--a process that could continue beyond Marcos’ lifetime.

The prospect of criminal action against Marcos, while still remote, has nevertheless become more pressing.

The Justice Department, in a move officials say is routine for wide-ranging allegations of misconduct, has asked its 96 U.S. attorneys to file memos detailing any current investigations involving the Marcos regime. None filed so far has turned up specific allegations of criminal violations by Marcos, Administration officials say.

But one official stressed that all the investigations are “preliminary,” and that Marcos-era documents recovered by the Aquino government and by U.S. Customs could produce damaging new leads. The most sensitive investigations include an 18-month probe of military aid to the Philippines and a newly opened investigation of alleged diversion of millions from humanitarian aid funds.

High-Level Decisions

Should evidence tying Marcos to U.S. crimes be discovered, the decision on whether to file charges against the former president “would have to be very high-level,” involving both Justice Department officials and the White House, Administration experts said.

Such a decision is unlikely, the experts said, and one of them carefully noted that a federal prosecutor is not bound by law to pursue even obvious evidence of criminal behavior. But if Marcos were tied directly and publicly to an egregious crime, they indicated, prosecution in an American court is not unthinkable.