Gov’t ignores US court order on Marcos wealth

Malacañang rejected yesterday an order issued by a United States federal judge in Honolulu that directs the Philippine government to transfer $40 million of $684 million in ill-gotten wealth of the late President Ferdinand Marcos to an account set up for victims of human rights abuses during his 14-year authoritarian rule.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye Jr. asserted that the federal court ruling handed down by US district Judge Manuel Real cannot be enforced on the Philippines as a sovereign state outside the jurisdiction of the US court.

In a terse statement, Bunye said that Real cannot compel the Philippines to comply with his order, and that the rights victims would be compensated under the country’s laws.

"We welcome the spirit of the US court decision but all decisions on ill-gotten wealth lie within the sovereign prerogative of the Philippines," he said. "We are committed to the compensation of human rights victims during martial law and this commitment will be carried out under our laws."

Real ordered the distribution of the $40 million, held in escrow at the semi-government-owned Philippine National Bank (PNB), to pay the compensatory damages won by 9,539 human rights abuse victims in their class action suit against Marcos.

Real ordered that the Marcos money be transferred to an account set up by the court in 1995 when the Honolulu jury awarded the class suit.

Only last February, President Arroyo gave assurances to the human rights victims that she was working closely with Congress to amend the law that set aside $684 million (P38 billion) in Marcos Swiss bank assets for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)

The President had already placed P8 billion of the P38 billion under escrow in anticipation of the passage of the amendment that would allow the rights victims to receive a portion of the Marcos assets.

But the amendment was not acted upon by the 12th Congress.

With the compensation of the Marcos rights victims being part of the 10-point agenda she laid down in her inaugural address, Mrs. Arroyo is expected to endorse the amendment anew to Congress.

The 13th Congress will open in joint session this July 26 with the President delivering the traditional state of the nation address.