MAKE THE COMPENSATION ACT A CHRISTMAS GIFT TO MARTIAL LAW VICTIMS -- PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today expressed the hope that the Human Rights Compensation Act will be finally approved by the 14th Congress before its year-end adjournment as the government's Christmas gift to some 10,000 victims of martial law atrocities.

The Senate approved on second reading Wednesday (Nov. 21) Senate Bill 1532 indemnifying the victims of human rights violations during the Marcos authoritarian rule from a P10 billion fund to be taken from the Marcos bank deposits recovered from Switzerland.

Pimentel, who sponsored the bill as its principal author, said it is very distressing and shameful on the part of the State that its commitment to indemnify the human rights victims remains unfulfilled more than 21 years after the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolt which freed the nation from a repressive regime.

The opposition lawmaker noted that the Arroyo administration was rebuked in a United Nations report presented last month by UN special rapporteur Philip Alston for failing to compensate the human rights victims as ordered by the courts.

He said it is an unconscionable act of neglect that the victims are still waiting for the promised compensation - meant to rectify the sufferings and injustice inflicted on them - four years after the $383 million Marcos bank deposits in Switzerland which were plundered from the national economy - were turned over to the Philippine government.

Many of the qualified victims have already died from old age and ailments without receiving state aid while many others are in the twilight of their years, still hoping that they will receive the long-delayed compensation to sustain their basic needs, including medicines.

"With the approval of this Act, we hope this will mitigate the sufferings that they had undergone during those parlous days."

Pimentel said there is every reason for the Arroyo administration to give priority attention to the grant of compensation to the victims in keeping with its much-vaunted commitment to promote and protect human rights.

"The bill acknowledges that compensation for victims of human rights violations is an obligation of the State. After all, it is the State that guarantees the civil and political rights of its citizens."

Certified by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as urgent, the bill had already been approved on third and final reading by the Senate and House of Representatives during the 13th Congress. During the last three days of session of the 13th Congress, the Senate ratified the consolidated version of the bill, but the House was unable to do so for vague and mysterious reasons.

The failure of the House to ratify the Human Rights Compensation Bill has only sparked suspicion that the money for the purpose had been diverted to the administration election campaign last May.

Pimentel said nobody can touch the P10 billion compensation for unauthorized purposes since this is supposed to be deposited in a separate trust account of the Bureau of Treasury in a government bank on behalf of the intended beneficiaries.

The senator from Mindanao said the violations of human rights committed by the Marcos regime were as varied as its victims. He said those with business or property coveted by the regime were forced to give up their assets while those who opposed his rule were arrested and detained under the regime's travesty of the legal system.

"Many were subjected to torture and to unspeakable acts of cruelty. Others became victims of forced disappearances and remain missing to this day. Many more were summarily executed, 'salvaged' in secret or killed in ruthless public massacres. Others were forced into exile abroad," Pimentel said.

Under the bill, victims of martial law atrocities can file their indemnity claims with the Human Rights Victims Compensation Board.

The bill directs the Commission on Human Rights and the Presidential Commission on Good Government to implement this legislation.