CA junks martial law victims' $2B claim anew

MANILA, Philippines — Thousands of martial law claimants suffered another setback in their fight for compensation from the estate of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos as the Court of Appeals junked their motion for reconsideration on their $2-billion claim.

The former 12th Division of the CA on January 3 junked the appeal filed by human rights claimants against Marcos estate. They had asked the appellate court to enforce the Feb. 3, 1995 decision of a Hawaii court awarding $1.964 billion to the martial law victims.

Priscilla Mijares, former Commissioner on Human Rights chair Loreta Ann Rosales, Hilda Narciso Jr., Mariano Dimaranan, Joel Lamangan lead a thousand other petitioners in the case.

But the CA, in ruling on their motion for reconsideration, said that it found "no new or substantial matter that would warrant a reversal or modification of our July 7, 2017 decision affirming the assailed decision."

The earlier July decision dismissed the petition and held that the decision of the Hawaii district court on Class Action No. MDL 840 was not binding on another class suit in a Makati court, which included unnamed claimants.

READ: CA junks Marcos victims’ claim for $2-B damages

The appellate court also held that: "There being no common question of law and fact between the claimants in MDL 840, the same was improperly lodged as a class suit."

In its earlier ruling, the court said that due to the classification of the claimants into three categories—torture, summary execution and disappearance victims—the case cannot be considered a class suit.

The court explained that a class suit should mean that the parties who file the case both for themselves and those they seek to represent share a common legal interest – “that is, the subject of the suit over which there exists a cause of action is common to all persons who belong to the group.”

The CA stressed that such classification of the claimants states that “no common question of law and fact exists between/among the claimants.”

The July ruling further read: "All told, the Final Judgement of the Hawaii Court, being null and void for want of jurisdiction, may not be enforced. To stress, said court was without jurisdiction because, first, the complaint was erroneously filed as a class suit and second, therein claimants remained unidentified."

The CA, in its latest decision, also stressed that the Hawaii Court "gave no opportunity to the unnamed claimants the full rehabilitative potential of litigation and overlooks the individual harms purportedly suffered, as well as giving no opportunity for the Marcos Estate to confront each and every claimant."

RELATED: Martial law victims receive compensation

"In merely using a scheme of statistical sampling to determine a compensation schedule and to compute an aggregate judgment for compensatory damages, the Hawaii court gave no opportunity to the unnamed claimants the full rehabilitative potential of litigation and overlooks the individual harms purportedly suffered,m as well as giving no opportunity for the Marcos Estate to confront each and every claimant," the CA said.

"Consequently, the Final Judgment rendered therein is not binding as the right to due process was violated," it added.

The 3-page decision was penned by Associate Justice Normandie Pizzaro. Concurring were Associate Justices Samuel Gaerlan and Jhosep Lopez.

According to an infographic released by the Official Gazette, there were about 70,000 people detained, 34,000 tortured, 3,240 victims of salvage and 398 enforced disappearances during the martial law rule of the late strongman.

The son of the late dictator, former Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is currently contesting the electoral win of Vice President Leni Robredo before the Presidential Tribunal Tribunal.

RELATED: 31 years of amnesia