News Release
29 January 2013
Amid the good news of the ratification of the bill to compensate martial law victims, members of the human rights group SELDA (Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto) deplored the “malicious, irresponsible and anti-people” statements made by Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) chairman Andres Bautista over the weekend that the martial law victims should consider giving up their claims in the class suit filed in Hawaii, now that a bill to give compensation to human rights victims is set to be enacted into law.
“We are exasperated, disappointed and angry at such malicious and irresponsible statements made by PCGG Chair Andres Bautista. Why should we give up the claims when the award is based on the judgment that the Marcos dictatorship is guilty of crimes against humanity, and therefore the Marcoses are accountable for the human rights violations committed under their reign?,” said Martial Law victim and SELDA chairperson Marie Hilao-Enriquez.
Enriquez also said that the Hawaii court judgment is final and executory.
“The victims are happy that this has become a landmark decision for victims of human rights violations the world over. The entire Filipino nation must be proud of that and now Mr. Bautista is again squandering the chance to go after the violators! We have never heard of any public apology from the Marcoses after so many years, now Bautista is telling us to give up this meager amount to compensate the victims?,” she said.
On September 22, 1992, the Hawaii Federal Court through Judge Manuel Real, issued a judgment on the class suit in favor of the Marcos victims. The said decision found Marcos guilty of gross human rights violations and the Estate of Marcos is liable to pay damages to the victims.
SELDA’s chairperson explained that the bill’s passage here in the legislative halls of the country is entirely different from the class suit that the 9,539 Martial Law victims filed in a Hawaii district court after the fall of Marcos in 1986.
“Bautista does not know what he is talking about. The Human Rights Victims Recognition and Reparation Bill, when enacted into law, will be the government’s mechanism to give recognition and reparation to victims of Martial Law. Since the fall of the dictator in 1986, the victims waited for the administrations after Marcos to go after the conjugal dictatorship and their cohorts, and make them accountable for the HRV’s committed during martial law. But no one did. The victims were the only ones who braved the systems, the Marcos maneuvers, the machinations of American and Filipino lawyers who supposedly helped the victims. It was they who fought steadfastly until they won a landmark case in a foreign court. Now it is being robbed again from them,” Enriquez declared.
The group also called Bautista “anti-people,” in reaction to his statement that ill-gotten wealth by the Marcoses belong to the Filipino people.
“Bautista talks as if we are not part of the Filipino people who fought the dictator. The Swiss Supreme Court was clear in its order that the victims of Martial Law who filed charges against Marcos in the Hawaiian court must be considered by the Philippine government once the latter moves the recovered funds that were in an escrow account,” she said.
Enriquez also clarified that only one-third of the original total funds transferred from Switzerland and handed over to the Philippine government were asked by the victims as they fully know that the amount was gotten from the national coffers.
In 2003, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled that the funds transferred from Switzerland are ill-gotten and must therefore be handed over to the Philippine Government, confirming the Swiss Federal Supreme Court’s decision concerning the illegitimate origin of the funds. The government alleged that all recovered ill-gotten money would be used for agrarian reform.
“In fact, it is we who should be asking the government where has the two-thirds of the funds gone, amid reports that funds that were supposedly funneled to the National Treasury for General Appropriations were malversed in the fertilizer fund scam,” Enriquez added.
The group casted doubts on the motive behind the PCGG’s “bashing” of the victims, especially that the ratification of the final bicameral version of the bill is slated for today.
“First, they proposed the abolition of the PCGG. Next, Bautista is messing up with the issue. It is malicious and doubtful that this is being raised at this time. Are they trying to stop the full implementation of the bill? Or are negotiations and compromises of the Aquino government with the Marcoses under way?,” asked Enriquez.
Reference:
Marie Hilao-Enriquez, SELDA chairperson 0917-5616800
