Compensation for HR victims not about money, says P-Noy

VIENTIANE (via PLDT) – Compensating victims of human rights abuses during martial law is not just about money but about giving them justice.

President Aquino made this clear to President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf of the Swiss Confederation during their bilateral meeting here on the sidelines of the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting, which ended yesterday.

He also assured the Swiss leader that he would ask Congress to expedite the approval of the compensation bill for human rights victims.

“My promise, my commitment is to push both chambers. We will appeal to them,” Aquino told Manila-based reporters in an interview at Don Chan Hotel, where he was billeted for the duration of his two-day stay.

Aquino admitted he has not yet talked to his senator friend Francis Escudero, who heads the committee on justice and human rights, which is still tackling the measure.

“I’m looking for the right time to talk to him. Let’s not forget that his father had worked for and had always believed in Mr. Marcos. As they say ‘one at a time’,” Aquino said in Filipino. 

Escudero’s father, the late Salvador, was Marcos’ longtime agriculture minister.

Aquino maintained that it is his duty as chief executive and son of Marcos’ chief political rival – who was himself a victim of martial law – to make known to all the excesses of the Marcos regime.

“This is something personal, and personal not in the sense of monetary aspect,” he remarked. “Our history should be clear that there was once a time when the government was used to suppress the rights of the people,” he said.

“There should be formality for future generations – that there had been an aberrant period, a clear and unmistakable nightmare, so that it won’t happen again,” he said.

Aquino also made it clear to Schlumpf that getting a compensation bill passed would be difficult because many members of the Marcos family are still in key positions in government.