Lawyer optimistic FM rights victims will get their money

HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) — A lawyer for human rights victims of the regime of the late Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos says she is optimistic a federal appeals court’s refusal to rehear the case will lead to awarding of $35 million in Marcos money held in Honolulu.

Sherry P. Broder, representing 9,500 victims who hope to collect the captured Marcos wealth, said she received formal notice Monday that the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 12 rejected Philippine government motions to rehear the case.

The court said that none of its more than 30 judges had been persuaded by the Philippine government’s position that the court had erred in its May decision that the money should be disbursed to those who suffered under a US-backed regime that carried out summary executions, disappearances and torture.

The court referred to Marcos as "a rough and rapacious ruler, who often exercised arbitrary power."

In a revised decision, it said the money, while only a small part of the $2 billion awarded Marcos’ victims in a 1995 decision, would have "symbolic significance" and will have monetary meaning for the poorest of the claimants.

Each victim would get an initial payment of about $2,000.

That ends the case for the 9th Circuit, Broder said.

But she said she also received word from the Philippine government on Monday that it intends to file a petition with the US Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the case.