Joker questions non-inclusion of HR victims' compensation in priority bills

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Joker Arroyo is disappointed at the administration for failing to include a bill seeking to compensate human rights victims of martial law in priority legislation submitted to Congress.

In a statement, Arroyo said he could not understand how Malacañang had overlooked the bill, considering that funding has been kept in the national treasury since the Marcos funds were recovered from Swiss banks more than eight years ago. “Are they suffering from premature amnesia, not realizing that President Noynoy’s father, Ninoy Aquino, is Exhibit No. 1 of human rights victims, imprisoned in solitary confinement in a military stockade, denied civil court trial but convicted by a military court and assassinated by his military escort,” he said.

“Sad, sad, sad. We honor those who joined EDSA in February 1986 but we fail to recognize the horrors suffered for 14 years by human rights victims who had earlier fought and helped prepare the groundwork so that EDSA would happen.”

Arroyo said it was sickening that an American court ended up being the first to judicially recognize the sufferings of the human rights victims “while no Filipino government institution has come around to doing it.”

Judge Manuel Real of the US District Court of Hawaii has ordered the payment of $1,000 to each of the 7,526 complainants in a class action suit against the Marcoses.

The human rights compensation bill is meant to provide P10 billion for the victims of martial law. They money would come from the $718 million recovered from the Swiss bank accounts of the Marcoses.

The P10 billion represents the $200-million share of the human rights victims from the money recovered.

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

The $623 million eventually went up to $718 million after accruing interest over the years. 

Based on 2007 data from the Department of Budget and Management, the $718 million was broken down as follows: $1.452 million in cash; $598.299 million invested in bonds; $23.337 million invested in stocks; and $95.676 million in interest accrued. 

It was in January 2004 when the recovered funds were finally transferred from the Philippine National Bank to the national treasury.