UN: RP should pay damages to Marcos victims for delay in compensation

HONOLULU – The Philippines is obligated to compensate thousands of victims of human rights abuses for the "unreasonable" delay in paying them under a 1995 judgment against the estate of the late Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, a United Nations committee says.

The Philippines should also "ensure that similar violations do not occur in the future," said the U.N. Human Rights Committee in an April 3 statement. The U.N. agency ordered Philippine officials to report back within 90 days of the decision to show how they have complied with it.

In 1995, using a two-century-old U.S. law, a jury in the U.S. District Court in Honolulu awarded 9,500 Filipinos $2 billion after finding Marcos responsible for summary executions, disappearances and torture. With interest, that amount has almost doubled.

The ruling was part of a 10-year financial battle for victims who seek compensation from the Marcos regime to settle human rights abuses.

So far, none of the award has been distributed because it has been tied up by foreign banks and the Philippine government claiming ownership of the accounts.

The plaintiffs filed a class-action suit against the Marcos estate in 1986, the year he was deposed as president after ruling for 20 years. Marcos and his family fled to Hawaii, where he died in exile in 1989.

"We’re just ecstatic about the opinion," said Honolulu attorney Sherry Broder, one of the lawyers who have represented the human rights victims. "This is another step toward collection, and it is a significant victory because justice delayed is justice denied."

Robert Swift, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, accused the Philippine government of filing "frivolous" court filings in the United States to obstruct payment of the award, including the court-ordered distribution of $35 million in recovered Marcos assets.

He said when the 9th Circuit refused to review the case, the Philippines asked the US Supreme Court to take the case. If the Supreme Court refuses, the victims could begin receiving their first payments by July.

The victims filed suit against the Marcos estate in the Philippine courts nearly a decade ago in May 1997 to collect from Marcos assets in the Philippines. A regional court in Makati dismissed the complaint, saying the victims had to pay a filing fee of $8.4 million, based on the $2 billion in dispute. The Philippine Supreme Court took eight years before issuing its final decision,overturning the Makati court and finding that the filing fee should have only been $7.20. – AP