Will Submit to Fingerprint Order, Marcos Says

Former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos said Thursday that he will comply with a federal judge’s order that he and his wife Imelda submit their fingerprints, voice prints and handwriting samples to a grand jury in New York.

“I’ll take my destiny, whatever that may be, but I’m going to fight for my dignity and honor,” Marcos said in an Associated Press interview, his first meeting with the press since being indicted two weeks ago on fraud charges.

U.S. District Judge John Walker ordered the former president and his former first lady to appear Wednesday at the FBI’s offices in Honolulu to comply with the subpoenas.

Judge’s Ruling

If they don’t, the judge said in federal court in New York, “the Marcoses, both Ferdinand and Imelda, must appear before me on Nov. 10 for imposition of sanctions.”

Marcos, accused with his wife of plundering hundreds of millions of dollars from their homeland and spending it in the United States, said he will meet his legal obligations and that he had been offered no promises by the U.S. government.

“No, I am not afraid of going to jail,” said Marcos, who sat in a wheelchair during the interview. “I would probably be dead by the time the trial is over. I’m feeling in pain every day.”

The Marcoses and eight others were indicted after more than two years’ investigation. Other grand juries here and in West Virginia are still investigating Marcos, but he said he is sure he will be vindicated.

“I don’t think they have any evidence,” said Marcos, citing past investigations in the United States, the Philippines and Japan that he said cleared him of similar charges.

Marcos did not say whether he would testify before a congressional subcommittee investigating allegations that he illegally funneled millions of dollars into President Reagan’s 1980 and 1984 campaign funds, but he denied the accusations.

“We never contributed to any political activities in the United States, and the Federal Elections Commission reached that same conclusion,” he said.

Marcos, 71, said he holds no hard feelings for Reagan, who had hailed Marcos as a staunch U.S. ally and allowed the Marcoses to settle in Hawaii after their fall from power in February, 1986.

Imelda Marcos pleaded innocent in New York on Monday, but her husband’s arraignment was postponed pending a report by a government physician who examined him the same day.

Defense lawyers contend Marcos is too frail for the 10-hour flight to New York, and the AP interview was cut short by aides who said Marcos was late for a medical appointment.

During Thursday’s hearing in federal court in New York, Walker did not specify what sanctions he might impose but said he would “hold in abeyance the issuance of a bench warrant” for the arrest of the Marcoses.