Joker bill allots P10 B for martial law victims

Sen. Joker Arroyo has filed a bill seeking to appropriate P10 billion as compensation for the 9,539 or more victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime.

In Senate Bill 1877, Arroyo said the government should recognize the heroism of all Filipinos who were victims of summary execution, torture, involuntary disappearance and other gross human rights violations during the regime of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos from June 30, 1965 to Feb. 25, 1986.

"The State hereby acknowledges its moral and legal obligation to compensate said victims and/or their families for the deaths and injuries they suffered under the Marcos regime," the bill states.

In declaring this policy, Arroyo said the government takes into account the Philippines’ adherence to the universal declaration of human rights.

The policy, he added, also conforms with the Dec. 10, 1997 Swiss Federal Court decision granting anticipatory restitution to the Philippine government of certain Swiss bank deposits that form part of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth and recommending compensation to victims of human rights violations under the dictatorship.

The proposed law defines and enumerates the forms of human rights violations and the victims (or their families and relatives) who can make a claim.

The victims include the 9,539 people named as plaintiffs in the class suit filed against the Marcos estate which the United States District Court in Hawaii favored.

"The amount of compensation under this Act shall be in proportion to the gravity of the human rights violation committed...," the bill states.

Arroyo said the P10-billion compensation would be sourced from funds transferred by virtue of a Swiss Federal Court order and held in escrow at the Philippine National Bank.