Press Release
April 21, 2007

Recto: Compensation of rights victims to start this year

After more than two decades of waiting, victims of Martial Law abuse will finally be compensated before the end of the year as the law setting the mechanics of the distribution of their share from a seized Marcos wealth is expected be signed by July, the latest.

Sen. Ralph Recto said the victims of human rights violations compensation bill has been ratified by the Senate before it went on an election recess in February.

Once the House does the same in the post-election session of Congress in June, the bill will be sent to President Arroyo for her signature, he said

Thus, the reminder of a United Nations committee that the government indemnifies victims of rights abuses some of which happened 30 years ago has been rendered moot and academic by the imminent signing of the bill, Recto said

"It's a done deal. We expect the House action as a mere formality," Recto said

After the bill will be inked into law, a Board of Compensation will be created and it will process the valid claims based on the order of priority specified in the bill, Recto, a co-author of the measure and a member of the Senate panel to the bicameral conference, explained.

Under the measure, claims of heirs of extrajudicial killings will be processed first, Recto

Compensation will come from a P10-billion fund sourced from a $683-million Marcos wealth declared ill-gotten by the Supreme Court in 2003.

Recto said the "first awards' can be handed out before the end of the year as the fund is deemed automatically appropriated."

"There is no need to put it in the national budget. It's just there in the Treasury, properly earmarked, and just waiting for the law that will guide its use. We have been made to understand that the fund is off-limits for other uses," Recto said.

While the outlay is huge, the amount of individual indemnity will not be that big as there are many expected claimants, Recto said .

A tally made by a human rights group has placed at more than 10,000 the number of persons detained, murdered, and tortured from the time Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in September 1972 to his ouster by a popular revolt in February 1986.

"Two decades is a long time but it is never too late to say sorry and thank you to those who showed courage when it mattered most," Recto said.

"We hope that for the many families who suffered this will help bring closure," he said.

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