Senate okays bill appropriating P10 B for Marcos rights victims

The Senate has approved a bill providing for around P10 billion as compensation for human rights victims during the regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Under the Senate bill, the rights victims would be getting $200 million from the $718 million recovered by the Philippine government from the Marcoses’ secret Swiss bank accounts.

This is in contrast to the counterpart bill being pushed by the House of Representatives, which calls for P8 billion for the victims.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, one of the principal authors of the Senate bill, has been pushing for the allocation of at least P10 billion for the victims as prescribed by the Supreme Court (SC).

On numerous occasions, Arroyo questioned the P8 billion being quoted by Malacañang as the share of the human rights victims from the recovered wealth.

He argued that there is no question about how much should be set aside for the victims because the SC had specifically quoted $200 million for this purpose.

Using the prevailing exchange rate of P56.155 to $1 in January 2004 when the funds were finally transferred from the Philippine National Bank to the National Treasury, the rights victims should be getting around P11.2 billion.

According to Arroyo, Malacañang, through then Budget Secretary Romulo Neri, had promised to increase the P8 billion to P10 billion.

The Senate bill indicated that the money that was recovered from the Swiss banking system would "become the principal source of funds for the implementation of this Act."

During hearings conducted by the Senate on the national budget last year, Neri reported that there was still P5 billion left from the almost P40 billion recovered from Switzerland.

Most of the money has been spent for the agrarian reform program of the government as required by law.

Under Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) of 1988, all of the recovered ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses can only be used for agrarian reform.

Because of the CARL provision, Congress has to pass a law that would pave the way for the use of part of the funds for the compensation of human rights victims.

Arroyo said that the P2 billion that would be added to the P8 billion set aside by Malacañang would be taken from the P5 billion left from the recovered wealth.

In July 2003, the SC ordered the transfer of $623 million recovered from the Swiss banks to the Philippine government after determining that the money was ill-gotten.

The $623 million has gone up to $718 million after accruing interest over the years.

Based on the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) documents, the $718 million was broken down as follows: $1.45 million in cash, $598.29 million invested in bonds, $23.33 million invested in stocks and $95.67 million in interest accrued.

Under the Senate bill, a Human Rights Claims Board would be created to ensure that the funds appropriated for the victims are properly disbursed.

The quasi-judicial body would be composed of two representatives from the public sector to be appointed by the President and three representatives from non-government organizations who were active in attending the needs of the human rights victims during the period of Sept. 21, 1972 to Feb. 25, 1986.

The bill specified seven NGOs from where the representation to the Board would be tapped —Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, Association of Major Religious Superiors, National Secretariat for Social Action, Medical Action Group, Free Legal Assistance Group, Movement of Attorneys for Brotherhood and Integrity and the Protestant Lawyers League of the Philippines.

Apart from ensuring the proper disbursement of the funds, the Board would also ensure that the human rights violations committed by the Marcos regime are thoroughly documented.

Around 10,000 victims, their relatives or heirs are expected to benefit from the law on rights compensation.

The bill also prescribes a formula for determining how much should go to each victim, depending on the severity of the suffering.

From a range of one to 10 points, victims who died shall be given nine to 10 points; those who were tortured shall be given four to nine points; the detained, two to four points; and the harassed and economically disadvantaged, one to two points.

Arroyo pointed out that this is the largest compensation bill ever given by the government.

He added that the work of the board should also be finished two years from the enactment of the bill.

Sen. Richard Gordon, who along with Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile abstained from voting on the measure, said he wanted to see the World War II veterans compensated first since this has long been promised by the government.

"While this fund may alleviate the sufferings of the human rights victims, I call upon the government to settle all the other debts we have to our other heroes," Gordon said.