Bayan warns on PCGG-Marcos settlement

Party List group Bayan Muna warned yesterday against unprincipled compromises between the Marcos family and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) in negotiating financial settlements.

Bayan Muna Rep. Crispin Beltran added that the present administration should be transparent in all agreements being forged with the Marcoses on the latters’ alleged ill-gotten wealth.

Beltran’s statement was in reaction to reports that Imelda Marcos was willing to surrender $30 million of their US deposits as partial fulfillment of the $235 million a Hawaiian court ordered to be given to victims of martial law atrocities in 1995.

Beltran, also Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) chair, said the PCGG should give detailed and up-to-date reports on the negotiations with the Marcoses, so that the 10,000 martial law victims and their families’ interest would be protected.

"We don’t want any unprincipled compromises or agreements forged between the government and the Marcoses," said Beltran.

He said $30 million is a "very small amount" compared to what the human rights victims should have been given a long time ago as indemnification for the atrocities they were subjected to during martial law.

He said the PCGG should push for the release of the full amount and have it immediately given to the victims.

He said that anything less is an "unjust" compromise and further "insults" the victims who have suffered injury through the years while waiting for justice to be implemented.

Beltran also warned against any recommendations of American counsel Robert Swift regarding the settlement.

He said that Swift has long been disowned by majority of the human rights victims and the claimants under militant groups such as Karapatan and Selda, who filed and won the indemnification case a decade ago. — Matthew Estabillo, Sandy Araneta