Karapatan seeks passage of compensation bill for HR victims

MANILA, Philippines - Rights group Karapatan urged President Aquino and Congress yesterday to pass a bill providing compensation to victims of human rights abuses under the Marcos regime that is acceptable and judicious.

Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay said both houses of Congress should not delay the passage of the bill and the President should sign it into law before the elections.

“Since the landmark judgment in Hawaii on the class suit against Marcos, several sessions of Congress have been remiss in rendering justice and indemnification for Marcos victims through the appropriate legislative measure. Aquino should certify this as an urgent measure,” Palabay said.             

A bicameral conference committee is working on the final version of the bill.

Palabay said the positions of Sen. Joker Arroyo and Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello, whom Karapatan deems as “pro-Marcos,” go against the principle of rendering justice and indemnification to martial law victims.

“Both lawmakers denigrate the persevering efforts of the victims when they disregard the judgment of the US court in the landmark class suit against the Marcoses,” Palabay said.

“By asserting that there should be ‘disputable presumption’ for all victims, they are providing the Marcoses with another malicious legal tactic to contest the judgment in Hawaii, which found former President Ferdinand Marcos guilty of rights abuses during martial law. This proposal is clearly in favor of the Marcoses,” she said.

Palabay said Karapatan and the Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA), a group of former political prisoners, who led the filing of a class suit in Hawaii, are insisting that “conclusive presumption” should be given to the 9,539 victims who filed and won the class suit in Hawaii.

Karapatan also reminded Arroyo and Bello of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights that recognizes that right of people, who are confronting tyrannical and oppressive regimes, to take up arms against these kinds of governments, such as the Marcos regime.

“By proposing to exclude as ‘victims’ those who took up arms and also suffered rights violations during martial law, Arroyo and Bello are promoting principles that undermine the struggles of the Filipino people during martial law and, in effect, are undermining the universally recognized right of peoples to oppose tyrannical regimes in whatever form they deem necessary,” Palabay said.