Bongbong: Gov’t, not Marcoses, must pay FM rights victims

HONOLULU, Hawaii — The son of the late President Ferdinand Marcos told a US federal judge through his lawyer that it was the Philippine government’s responsibility and not his family’s to pay compensation to thousands of Filipinos awarded damages for alleged abuses under the Marcos regime.

Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., who is in Hawaii on a goodwill tour of the state, attended a closed hearing Monday before US District Judge Manuel Real.

Marcos, governor of Ilocos Norte province, spoke publicly about the case only through his attorney. "My client supports the settlement and its prompt funding, but he’s not legally obligated to pay his father’s debts," attorney John Bartko said. "The Philippine government is responsible for providing the money."

Real is overseeing the distribution of assets in a class-action lawsuit, whose plaintiffs won a $2 billion judgment against the Marcos estate in 1995. The award has grown through the years to $3.7 billion with interest.

Appeals have dragged out court proceedings over the past decade, and to date none of the victims has received any money.

About 9,500 Filipinos are seeking reparations for alleged human rights abuses by the elder Marcos, who was brought to Hawaii by the United States in 1986 after being deposed in a popular uprising. Marcos died in exile in 1989.

Marcos Jr., through his lawyer, said he doesn’t know where the assets from the Marcos estate are, and that he’s cooperating with the court to try and locate them.

Sherry Broder, an attorney for the plaintiffs, challenged the notion that Marcos Jr. and his family, including former first lady Imelda Marcos, were unable to start paying the money awarded by the court.

"There are personal assets," Broder said. "Imelda Marcos rented a plane for $750,000 to fly back to the Philippines. She still lives a very glorious lifestyle."

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last Friday rejected a request by the plaintiffs to recover $683 million in Marcos assets that were transferred from a Swiss account to the Philippine government, which claims ownership of the money.

The three-judge panel said American courts could not overturn a ruling by a foreign country’s supreme court, upholding the decision in July 2004 by the Philippine Supreme Court to deposit the funds in the government’s coffers.

Philippine law stipulates that all of Marcos’ allegedly ill-gotten wealth be used to finance the government’s land reform program.

However, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye has said Congress is working to amend the law to allow the victims to be compensated.

The plaintiffs are pursuing other avenues to collect money.

They are trying to seize $22 million in Marcos assets located in a bank in Singapore, but the Philippine government claims ownership of that money as well.

The plaintiffs also are trying to litigate their case against the Marcos estate in Philippine courts but haven’t gotten past a court order requiring the posting of a $7 million bond to have the case heard.

Last month, the appeals court upheld a previous ruling by Real freezing Marcos’ assets that are being held in the Philippines and in other banks around the world.

Those funds include $40 million that has been held in an escrow account because of competing claims of ownership by the Marcos estate, the Philippine government and the human rights victims.

Attorneys for Arelma Corp., a Panamanian financial company set up by Marcos that originally held the $40 million, appealed that ruling. Arguments in the appeal are scheduled to be heard before the 9th Circuit in March.

Marcos Jr. was scheduled to return to the Philippines on Tuesday.

In Manila, meanwhile, Bunye admitted yesterday he had made a mistake about how much the human rights victims would receive from Congress as indemnity.

The Palace spokesman made an apology a day after Sen. Joker Arroyo indignantly pointed out that roughly P11 billion has been earmarked for victims in two bills pending with Congress, though Bunye had said in a radio interview Sunday the figure was P8 billion. The money will come from the $683 million recovered by the government from the Marcos estate.

Arroyo said Bunye was "shortchanging" the victims, most of whom were tortured during the Marcos dictatorship.

"President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had committed $200 million for the human rights victims. I stand corrected," Bunye said in a statement issued by Malacañang.

In a radio interview later the same day, Bunye publicly apologized to Senator Arroyo for his mistake.

"So I stand corrected if I gave the wrong peso figure. But what is important is it’s very clear the President is committed to compensate the human rights victims and it is important to have the law for this," he said.

"There are bills already filed and these have been certified by the President as urgent. So it’s important that these are passed into law and the human rights victims will be paid as soon as possible."

Arroyo criticized Bunye, saying he "blabbers on about any subject under the sun," and said the President "occasionally gets into trouble, not because of what she says or does, but because (of what) her overeager subalterns do, say and feed her."

Meanwhile, a human rights group yesterday demanded an official government apology for their suffering under the Marcos dictatorship.

"Official recognition could take the form of a national marker to the victims of martial rule and the heroes who sacrificed their lives and youth during the dark period," said Aurora Parong, executive director of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines.

"It is high time that the government make an apology to the thousands of victims of martial law wherein the Philippine government allowed itself to be used for fascist repression and economic plunder." — Marichu Villanueva, Katherine Adraneda