Manila: Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez, 81, the younger brother of former first lady and now Congresswoman Imelda Marcos, former envoy to the United States and China during the time of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, died after undergoing treatment for adult-leukemia, at St. Luke’s Medical Centre in suburban Taguig City on Tuesday, belated reports said.
He was the hospital’s intensive care unit when he died, said a doctor at St. Luke’s
He lived in exile when a people-backed military mutiny paved the way for the ouster of the Marcos family, and the ascendance of Corazon Aquino to the presidency in 1986. He stayed abroad to put up his business interests.
In 2000, he returned to the Philippines and faced 24 cases of alleged graft practices filed against him at the Sandiganbayan, an anti-graft court.
He was charged for non-filing his statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth; and for acquiring a $1.8-million behest loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines to put up Philippine Journalists Inc., which published tabloids such as People’s Journal, People’s Tonite, and Taliba.
Charges alleged that he received dual compensation while serving as ambassador to China, Saudi Arabia, and the United States while he was governor of Leyte in central Philippines from 1976 to 1986.
But in October 2009, voting 8-4, the Supreme Court dismissed the cases filed against him because they were filed late, beyond the cases’ prescription time, on November 5, 2001.
Romualdez was called “Datu Puti (White King), for his penchant to wear white suits that matched his silver hair.
