This statement was issued in reaction to the fear voiced by lawyer Robert Swift, the American lead counsel for the 10,000 human rights victims, that the release of funds intended for the victims might take a snail-pace process. He stressed that the fastest way for the passage of the bill regarding the compensation of the victims, is to require a special commission to work with the United States court.
Pagdanganan said "it is but proper that we have to see to it that this program is carried out in accordance with the law, the framework for the CARP’s (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program) P30-billion special budget set by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council."
President Arroyo had declared that out of the P38 billion ill-gotten wealth, P30 billion would go to the CARP, the focal point of the government’s sustainable rural development program. The rest of the funds or P8 billion would be used to compensate the human rights victims, most of whom are farmers.
Pagdanganan also said that the bulk of the ill-gotten wealth recovered from the Marcoses by the Philippine Commission of Good Government (PCGG) shall be mainly used to finally complete the land acquisition and distribution thrusts of the CARP.
"I assure the civil society that the money would be used for the purpose it is intended for," he stressed. "I understand the fear of many sectors about how the money would be spent, but the government can assure them that it would be used in accordance with established priorities of the DAR," he said.
He explained that the P8 billion allotted for land acquisition and the P22 billion for support services set by DAR and the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) are in accordance with the long established thrust of CARP to distribute land simultaneously with the provision of support services.