Imelda says no government deal, will win cases

MANILA, June 25 (Reuters) Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos said today she was confident of being cleared in all cases of corruption against her in court, and dismissed speculation that she had done a deal with the government.

The flamboyant widow of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos said her family planned to recover several properties in Manila seized by the state in 1986 after an army-backed popular revolt sent the couple into exile in Hawaii.

''There's no compromise,'' she told an ABS-CBN television talk show programme. ''I don't compromise with honour, with truth, with God and with beauty.'' The Marcoses, their relatives and business cronies were accused of looting up to 10 billion dollars from state coffers and faced up to 900 cases of corruption and other charges. But only about 1.24 billion dollars have been recovered.

Imelda Marcos returned to the Philippines in 1991, two years after her husband died in exile.

She has been cleared in many of the cases against her, most recently in five cases of tax evasion dating to the 1980s. A lower court in Manila ruled earlier this month that government prosecutors had failed to present evidence to back up the charges.

Imelda Marcos's son, Ferdinand Jr filed cases recently to recover billions of pesos worth of property in Manila seized by the government in 1986.

Rumours regularly come up in Manila that the Marcoses have done a deal with the government to drop charges against them. But Imelda Marcos denied there was any such deal.

''If you're on the side of the right and truth, you're on the side of God. If you're on the side of God, who can be against you?'' she said.

She said she was confident the lower courts would find her innocent in all her remaining 60 criminal and civil lawsuits in the Philippines.

''Money and power will only be with you up to the grave,'' she said. ''But truth and honour will go beyond the grave and to infinity.'' REUTERS GP BD1428