By Tarra Quismundo, Alcuin Papa, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The settlement may amount to “loose change,” but the $7.5-million pay-out for human rights abuse victims (or $1,000 for each victim) during martial law is an affirmation of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth, a human-rights victim and former lawmaker said on Friday.

Satur Ocampo, a former representative of the party-list group Bayan Muna, said the settlement for Marcos-acquired land in the American states of Texas and Colorado was a welcome development in the 25-year fight of victims of abuses during the Marcos regime.

Distribution is expected to begin in mid-February and take about a month.

“It’s just loose change. But the amount is OK… at least families are getting something,” Ocampo, a national board member of Selda (Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto), said when reached by phone.

“It is a confirmation, an acknowledgment that the Marcoses had amassed ill-gotten wealth,” he said.

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Loretta Ann “Etta” Rosales, who used to head the Claimants 1081 group, told the Inquirer that she was waiving her rights to her share.

Rosales said she and other victims would use the money to establish a foundation to continue their human rights advocacy and to memorialize victims of martial law.

She said she was “happy” for the award because it represented an “uphill struggle” for the victims. She added that it was the first time in Asia that victims of human rights abuse would be indemnified.

A federal judge in Honolulu approved on Thursday the distribution of $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by thousands of victims of torture, execution and abduction under the Marcos regime.

The distribution provides the victims their first opportunity to collect something since they sued in 1986.

Each eligible member of the class-action lawsuit will receive $1,000 under the plan approved by US District Judge Manuel Real.

Malacañang welcomed the decision of the Honolulu court.

“Yes, this is a positive development because of the long wait of the victims of human-rights violations during the administration of former President Marcos. It’s high time this happened,” said President Aquino’s deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte.

Asked to comment, the chair of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the government agency tasked to pursue the recovery of Marcos assets, said the state was not a party in the case.

“But that does not prejudice the ability of the republic to go after these properties. That’s one thing we’re looking at right now,” PCGG Chair Andres Bautista told the Inquirer.

Double-listing

Ocampo was among some 9,539 claimants who filed the class suit against Marcos and his cronies. The list was trimmed by 2,000 because of alleged double entries, but Ocampo said this had to be further explained by lead lawyer Robert Swift.

He said he had yet to know for sure whether he was among the names removed from the list as the names of the 7,526 retained claimants had yet to be disclosed.

“They said there was double-listing, but it sounds impossible for 2,000 names to be double-listed,” he said.

Ocampo also said Swift should explain why the original settlement amount of $10 million was reduced by $2.5 million.

“[He] should explain where the $2.5 million went, if it was used for attorney’s fees or incidental expenses,” Ocampo said.

More assets in NY, Singapore

He said the lawyer should also explain the mechanics of the distribution.

The Associated Press reported that during a hearing at a federal court in Honolulu, Swift said the payments were an important milestone for victims who had been fighting for years. Most of the victims or their surviving family members live in the Philippines.

“We know they are anxious for distribution. Most of our members are poor, very poor, and live in a Third World country that hasn’t compensated them for any injuries they suffered, or loss of loved ones,” Swift said.

He said $1,000 might not seem like much but that the money would go far in the Philippines where per capita income was about $1,700.

The funds come from a $10-million settlement of a case against individuals controlling Texas and Colorado land bought with Marcos money. Legal fees and a payment to the person who located the properties will consume most of the remaining $2.5 million of the settlement.

Swift said his team was still pursuing an additional $70 million in Marcos assets through courts in New York and Singapore.

Ground-breaking case

Swift said the case was groundbreaking in that it was the first class-action lawsuit filed anywhere in the world for human rights violations.

“The challenge was to show that it could be done. And it could be done efficiently and the court could manage the case efficiently. And I think we accomplished all of that,” he said.

Fr. Dionisio Cabillas, secretary general of Selda, said the award represented a triumph for the victims.

“That is a symbol of the triumph of the struggle of the victims of martial law, so they will accept [the payment], no matter how small. It shows that Marcos was guilty,” Cabillas told the Inquirer.

Rosales advised victims to accept their share. But she said it was also within the rights of the victims to refuse the payment.

“All who have the right to claim the award should claim it. Those who don’t want it, that’s their right. What is important is to ensure the distribution to those who deserve it,” Rosales told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Blocked all the way

“This makes me happy. And this is just the first tranche after God knows how long… I don’t care how small it is. It’s very significant,” she said.

Rosales said Judge Real’s court approved the award of any Marcos asset recovered by the victims as far back as 1995.

“Every step of the way was blocked by people who would rather keep these [Marcos assets] to themselves, especially the government,” she said.

She narrated that then President Joseph Estrada had been supportive of their fight. But she said the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had thwarted all their efforts to get their award, including a legislative bill that should have outlined the distribution of the award.

Rosales and Cabillas also expressed hope that the PCGG would not oppose the award.

In a separate statement, Ocampo called the US court decision a “vindication” for human rights victims.

“The settlement has proven the very well known fact that the Marcoses stashed money from the people’s coffers and allowed dummies and cronies to hold these for them. This is a vindication for the victims and the Filipino people’s fight against corruption of the hated conjugal dictatorship,” he said.

Selda also called on the Aquino administration to certify as urgent long-pending bills, one filed by Ocampo during his time in Congress, that would legislate the compensation of victims of martial law. With reports from AP and Norman Bordadora

(Agence France-Presse)

MANILA—The Philippine government and a human rights group on Saturday hailed a US court decision awarding compensation to victims of the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos as a symbolic victory.

The US decision, awarding about $1,000 each to some 7,500 victims of Marcos-era abuses, would provide some vindication more than 20 years after the dictator was toppled from power, a government official said.

“We welcome (the decision) insofar as it puts closure to decades-long wait of the claimants in this case. It is a vindication for a wrong that was done to them,” said President Benigno Aquino’s spokeswoman Abigail Valte.

Father Dionito Cabillas, secretary-general of Selda, a victims’ organization which originally brought the case, said: “It is small but it is a symbol of justice, a symbol of triumph for the sickly and aging victims of the Marcos dictatorship.”

A US federal judge in Honolulu earlier this week approved the distribution of $7.5 million as part of a settlement to those tortured, detained and killed under Marcos.

The money comes from assets held in the US by a crony of Marcos, in whose name the dictator allegedly bought land in Texas and Colorado.

Marcos, who came to power in 1965 and declared martial law in 1972, used such cronies to plunder state coffers and stash his money abroad until he was overthrown by a popular revolt in 1986.

Marcos fled to exile in Hawaii and died there in 1989 but members of his family have returned home and regained some measure of influence.

Efforts to recover the stolen wealth of Marcos and his cronies have been complicated for years by the competing claims of the government and victims, and the legal tactics of the Marcos family.

Valte said the government was not a party to this latest case, adding that it was up to other official agencies whether to contest the US decision or not.

The head of a government commission tasked with recovering the Marcos wealth said that his agency was studying the issue.

“That (decision) does not prejudice the ability of the republic to go after these properties,” commission chairman Andres Bautista was quoted as saying in the Philippine Inquirer newspaper.

Cabillas said he hoped Aquino would order government agencies not to block the victims from receiving their payments.

“The pleading of the victims is to let justice be served to them, no matter how small, so they can have some kind of satisfaction,” he told AFP.

President Aquino is himself the son of an opposition leader jailed and then murdered by Marcos soldiers. His widowed mother, Corazon Aquino, later led the revolt that toppled the dictator.

However, Marcos’s shoe-loving widow, Imelda, and his son Ferdinand Jr. were elected to the legislature in the May 10 vote that brought Benigno Aquino to power, while a Marcos daughter won a provincial governor’s seat.

Spokesmen for the Marcos family could not be contacted for comment.#

By Ronalyn. V.Olea, Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Two more of the so-called “Morong 43” were freed today, Dec. 28, after their lawyers convinced the court that the supposedly pending criminal cases that the police and military cited to prevent their earlier release involved namesakes.

Aldrin Garcia and Antonio de Dios, both 31 years old, walked out of the Metro Manila District Jail (MMDJ) inside Camp Bagong Diwa, at around 4:40 p.m. today. De Dios is wearing a white shirt printed with the words “Free the 43!” while Garcia is wearing a shirt that read “I am proud to be a community health worker.” Both of them carry black knapsacks containing some of their clothes.

The two went straight to the office of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in Quezon City where they were met by supporters. They shared a meal of chicken and spaghetti to celebrate their freedom.

The two are among the five male detainees who were left behind at the BJMP after 33 of the Morong 43 were released on Dec. 17. Authorities said the five could not be freed that day because they allegedly faced other charges.

The Morong court issued release orders for the 43 health workers after the Department of Justice withdrew the charges against them. No less than President Benigno S. Aquino III declared that the rights of the 43 had been violated and that due process had not been observed.

Aldrin Garcia (left) and Antonio de Dios after their release today. (Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea / bulatlat.com)

The 43 were arrested on Feb. 6 and were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives. They insisted that they were only conducting a health training at the time of their arrest and that the firearms allegedly found on their possession had been planted by the military.

The supposedly pending charges against Garcia and de Dios were for drug use and for violation of the anti-bouncing check law.

“I am happy that I am now free but sad too because there are hundreds more political detainees languishing in jail,” Garcia told the media after he walked out of prison. He added that he might have trouble sleeping tonight because he is excited to see his daughter, who is in the province and who was born while he was in jail.

The three others who remain in jail are Rogelio Villarisis, Edwin Dematera and Danny Pinero. Five more of their companions are under the custody of the military, allegedly coerced to testify against the others.

In an interview with Bulatlat.com, de Dios said he did not expect to be released today. When asked what he missed most, De Dios replied: “I miss my family and I miss serving the poor.”

Garcia said that he is angry that the government locks up those who serve the people but sets free those who commit heinous crimes.

Both Garcia and De Dios said they would immediately go back to their work of providing health services to the poor. Garcia is from Masbate and de Dios is from Sorsogon.

Edre Olalia, one of their lawyees, said they obtained a certification from the Department of Health Treatment and Rehabilitation Center clearing Garcia of drug dependency.

Olalia also said documents from the Paranaque regional trial court (RTC) show that de Dios is not the same person accused of violating the anti-bouncing check law.

Olalia reiterated that the government has no legal basis for detaining the remaining Morong 43 detainees. He said that, no warrant of arrest or “commitment order” against the remaining three has been shown to them by the government. A commitment order designates an arrested person to a particular detention facility. (http://bulatlat.com)

(Philippine Daily Inquirer)

CITY OF CALAPAN, Philippines—A cultural worker, who was supposed to visit his father on Christmas, was killed in a military operation in San Jose town, Occidental Mindoro, on Thursday, according to the youth group Anakbayan.

Anakbayan-Timog Katagalugan and Karapatan-Southern Tagalog identified the victim as Stephen Lester Barrientos, 19, a member of the cultural group Southern Tagalog Cultural Network (STCN).

“Before he left for Mindoro he was excited and even confident that no harm would happen in his visit because of the declared ceasefire,” said Neil John Macuha, Anakbayan deputy secretary general, in a press release received by the Inquirer on Saturday.

Both groups condemned the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ 80th Infantry Battalion led by Lt. Col. Roger Percol for its offensive operation in San Jose despite a government-declared ceasefire.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines and New People’s Army (NPA) have agreed to observe a ceasefire from Dec. 16 to Jan. 3, 2011, as part of a confidence-building measure before peace talks resume in the first quarter of 2011.

Col. Carlos Quita, commander of the 203rd Infantry Brigade, was surprised when asked about Barrientos. “He must be a rebel, then,” he said by phone on Saturday.

According to him, 20 soldiers and negotiating panel members were sent to the area to meet with Christian Bascos, 27, an alleged NPA rebel, who was about to turn himself in.

“But the returnee did not immediately show up so the (Army) troops pulled out,” he said.

Quita said that as they distanced themselves, a group of NPA rebels fired upon them.

He said there were less than 10 rebels and the gunfight did not last long.

Quita said they saw blood traces in the vicinity that could have come from a wounded rebel, but they did not recover any body from the site.

Bascos surrendered after the firefight and is under the custody of the Army.

“We did not violate the ceasefire. They were the ones who fired first and we have the right to self-defense,” added Quita.

He dismissed reports of three civilians illegally arrested in the operation.

Barrientos became a full-time member of the STCN after dropping out of Batangas State University due to financial difficulties.

He was active in many cultural performances in Southern Tagalog and the National Capital Region.

Barrientos was also involved in cultural workshops and street plays at picket lines, protest camps, far-flung rural areas and urban poor communities.

Meanwhile, in a phone interview with Barangay Bayotbot chairman Sandy Pondanera, he said they were not aware if it was the Army that was behind the killing and violation of the peace truce.

But he said it was peaceful in their community, because the killing took place more than eight kilometers from San Jose town proper, along the boundary of Barangays Mabini Annex and Antipolo.—Madonna T. Virola, Inquirer Southern Luzon