No secret talks with Estrada - Bongbong

LAOAG CITY -- Ilocos Norte Gov. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. dismissed yesterday speculations that he had met with President Estrada in this city to hold a secret discussion on his family's compromise proposal on the controversial Marcos wealth.

"Nothing happened," said Marcos, who admitted that the President went with him to his beachfront house here after speaking at the opening of a sports festival last Thursday.

"We did not have the chance to talk about that," he stressed.

The compromise proposal, whose contents remain secret, is reportedly aimed at beating the Feb. 28 deadline set by United States district court Judge Manuel Real in Hawaii to implement a $150-million settlement agreement with victims of human rights abuses under the Marcos regime.

Marcos said he talked with Mr. Estrada for about 30 minutes before the President and his entourage left for Manila at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

The Marcoses are under pressure to come up with $150 million to compensate almost 10,000 victims of human rights abuses during the 20-year rule of the deposed dictator.

The victims won a class suit against the Marcos estate in the Hawaii court which awarded them $2 billion in damages.

A compromise deal that set the settlement at $150 million -- to be taken out of the $650 million from Marcos Swiss accounts held in the Philippine National Bank -- has been rejected by the Sandiganbayan which is trying cases of ill-gotten wealth.

The young Marcos said it was Sandiganbayan Justice Francis Garchitorena who should be blamed for the impasse in the awarding of compensations to human rights claimants.

"The ball is in Justice Garchitorena's court," he said. "What is it that is holding him back? What does he need from us? There's no other source and place to get the $150 million from. There's no other money anywhere that has been identified that will satisfy that kind of amount."

Marcos stressed that the only option left to resolve the claim and beat the deadline is for the Marcos estate and the Philippine government to come to a compromise. That is, if the Sandiganbayan does not reverse its ruling.

The governor expressed regret that the Estrada administration has not replied to his family's offer to work out a compromise.

"The only other option that we have to get around this impasse is to come to a compromise with the government. We have made that known to them and they know it themselves. But so far, they have not entertained any of our approaches," he said.

It could not be immediately ascertained if Marcos discussed the issue with the President despite his declaration that he did not.

But should a compromise agreement push through, Marcos averred that the claims of the victims of human rights violations will be addressed completely. He assured that the agreement will not only be bilateral but "trilateral."

"The point of the $150 million (deal) is to pay all the claims. If the government decides to enter into agreement with us, somebody still has to take care of those claims. They don't go away just by a compromise agreement," he said.

"We'll just be addressing it differently. Instead of using the settlement we agreed on in Judge Real's court, we'll be using a settlement that we'll bilaterally and trilaterally agree on."