Go ahead, Imelda, taunt them again

Most of the abuse claimants against Ferdinand Marcos’ estate didn’t really set out to sue. They were only provoked by his family — yet won. This week they quietly began to each receive the peso equivalent of $1,000 in damages, drawn from Marcos’ seized illegal wealth. So full of themselves, the Marcoses again are taunting the tortured and the heirs of the disappeared and killed during Marcos’ 14-year martial rule. Will the victims band together anew and react in the way most painful for the Marcoses — to collect more from them?

The claimants at the Human Rights office remember why they sued a quarter of a century ago. Marcos had just fled to Hawaii in 1986, and stories were being publicized for the first time about the atrocities that dissidents had suffered. Reportedly about 60,000 had been jailed with no arrest warrant or court trial during Marcos’ reign. From 10,000 to 25,000 had been severely tortured, some sexually, or abducted and never seen again. Human rights lawyers resolved punitively to collect from the Marcos estate, that was then being exposed to consist of $2-$10 billion in stolen riches. A case was filed in Hawaii, carefully using the conservative figures: 10,000 casualties, $2 billion in loot. Word was sent to the victims of cruelty about the need to put their accounts in writing. About 4,000 readily complied. But thousands more declined, asserting that when they fought the despot they never planned eventually to be paid. Marcos’ wife Imelda and son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Jr. took it to mean victory. The petitioners were called liars who couldn’t present even half the supposed 10,000 sufferers. The mocking incensed the victims. Within weeks nearly 6,000 more submitted painful recollections of what they had undergone. The fight against Marcos was to resume, this time no longer to oust him but to make the world know how he had terrorized his own people.

In 1995 the Hawaii court awarded the $2 billion; the victims’ roster was purged to 7,526. Meanwhile, the Philippine Congress decreed that all recovered Marcos wealth was to go to land reform. The claimants deferentially shrugged; after all it wasn’t about money but truth. Court cases against Ferdinand, who died in 1989, Imelda and cronies dragged. So far the state has recovered P93 billion ill-gotten wealth; P250 billion is still tied up in litigation. Thieving sequestrators filched part of the loot. The Marcoses returned to power: Imelda as congresswoman, daughter Imee as governor, and Bongbong as senator. They are now lobbying for the burial of mummified Ferdinand at the Cemetery of the Heroes.

Recently land in Colorado and Texas was found to have been bought in 1980 with Marcos’ hoard. The crony who held it had (mis)led the government into quitting its claim against him. Liquidated for $10 million, it was awarded to the 7,526 claimants, minus attorneys’ fees and reimbursements, and finders’ rewards.

Upon hearing of the Hawaii ruling Imelda fumed, “We have no human rights violations, we have no case....” Supposedly the $10-million recompense was all “a matter of business.” The claimants know better, of course. They have since learned that it’s Imelda who treats everything as a matter of money.

The claimants wish to just move on, treating their hardships as stories to tell their grandchildren. While many of them, aging, could use the $1,000 for medicine, the award is mostly symbolic of their struggle. But the fresh insults are inciting them to regroup. More so since the court has cited Imelda and Bongbong for contempt in hiding Marcos’ wealth from them. The penalty: $365 million. The claimants have an option to press the Marcoses for payment.

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The government’s Nayong Pilipino Foundation (NPF) has an interesting proposal. It wants 8.6 hectares of parkland in Pasay City returned to it. The original Nayong Pilipino can then be reopened for profit, while showcasing Philippine natural resources, history and culture.

Nayong Pilipino used to be the premier park, next only to the Luneta in Manila. In the 1970s-1990s it attracted 1.2 million visitors a year. Hot sellers were replicas of tourist spots like Mayon Volcano, Ifugao rice terraces and Igorot village, and bistros offering Filipino cuisine. In 2002 it was transferred to the Manila International Airport Authority, which was then constructing a Terminal-3. Plans were scaled down, however, and the park was left idle instead of being used for new runways. Nayong Pilipino was moved to the old Centennial Expo inside Clark Field, Pampanga, which nobody visits. Bigger land was blocked off at the Pagcor’s Manila Bayside For P38 million recoverable in four years, the NPF would rebuild the park’s old features and add new ones. Among the former are the 300-aquarium marine display, botanical garden, and costumes of indigenous tribes. New features would include an orchidarium with freeze-drying for jewelry and development of new varieties, an aviary where visitors can witness hatchings, and a playground for indigenous games.

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