‘It’s a Sad Day,’ Imelda Marcos Says as She Posts Bail : Philippines: She’s fingerprinted, then freed on bond on mostly minor criminal tax charges.

Trembling and speechless, former First Lady Imelda Marcos went before a Philippine judge as an accused criminal for the first time Tuesday to post bail on three charges, present her homemade mug shots and be fingerprinted.

The charges against the woman the government says stole $5 billion? Failing to report the death of her husband, deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos, in Hawaii in September, 1989, and failing to file income tax returns for 1985 and 1986.

“It’s ridiculous, absurd,” said her lawyer, Antonio Coronel. “Every Tom, Dick and Harry here in the Philippines has this problem. No one is ever prosecuted. . . . They can’t get her on the more serious charges, so they’re trying to get her the way the U.S. government got Al Capone.”

Marcos was immediately released when Coronel paid her bail of $2,775, reaching into a plastic Mister Donut bag to drop a 3-inch wad of peso notes wrapped in rubber bands on the glass-topped desk of the regional trial court judge, Antonio Solano.

Marcos, who flew home to Manila on Monday from nearly six years exile in America, then signed her name under two color Polaroid mug shots. The pictures, one full face and the other a profile, appeared to have been taken in a living room in front of flowered curtains.

With her face drawn and near tears, she presented her right hand, then her left for fingerprinting. Dressed in white, she wore her 11-carat diamond engagement ring on carefully manicured and polished red fingernails. Her arms were black and blue from two days of supporters grabbing her arms in street rallies and motorcades.

And for the first time in almost anyone’s memory here, Marcos refused to say anything to the dozens of photographers and reporters who crowded round in the small, hot and shabby room, which teams of police sharpshooters guarded.

The judge, who took off his sweat-stained shirt as Marcos left the steamy room, said he forgot to set an arraignment date. “The crowd was too unruly,” he explained, wiping his brow.

Marcos’ final indignity came as she left the city hall here, a north Manila suburb. So many people crowded onto the sixth-floor elevator with her that it dropped 3 feet below floor level. Aides and security agents had to help haul her up and out, leaving her trademark bouffant hairdo mussed.

As more than 100 supporters, including local government workers, cheered from a balcony, Marcos drew her ink-stained fingers to her mouth to blow kisses, smile and wave. Asked how it felt to be treated as a common criminal, she said, “It’s a sad day.”

Earlier, Coronel paid a $3,700 cash bond to another Quezon City judge on four other charges against Marcos for failing to file tax returns since 1986. The judge, Tomas Tadeo, did not require Marcos to appear before him. He set an arraignment date of Dec. 9.

Coronel said Marcos will fight the charges. “We prefer it to go to trial,” he said. “We will not plea bargain. I want a complete vindication of the Marcoses.”

If convicted, Marcos could face a maximum of five years in jail and an $1,850 fine on each of the seven charges, Solano said.

Despite previous government announcements, the seven relatively minor criminal charges are the only ones that Marcos now faces and do not concern her alleged billions of dollars in “ill-gotten wealth.”

Other widely reported criminal charges relating to $356 million in secret Swiss bank accounts and massive graft and corruption are in the preliminary stages but have yet to be formally filed against her. She also faces at least 34 civil lawsuits.

Earlier Tuesday, Marcos flew to her late husband’s home province of Ilocos Norte, 250 miles north of Manila. Arriving at his ancestral home in Batac, she wept, prayed and kissed a coffin containing the refrigerated corpse of her mother-in-law, Josefa Marcos, news services reported. Although the late president’s mother died in 1988 at age 95, relatives have refused to authorize her burial until President Corazon Aquino lifts a ban on a Manila burial for him as well. He lies in an air-conditioned crypt in Hawaii.

Analysts said that the trip was the first in a provincial tour expected to boost Marcos’ bid for leadership of the political opposition, and a possible presidential bid, six months before the Philippines’ presidential election.