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Saturday, September 2, 2017
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THE LATE dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies have become legends among thieves. They used public funds for political and personal gains. Their ill-gotten wealth should be returned to the people. We should be vigilant against any compromise agreement with the Marcos heirs and cronies that enables their getting a free pass for crimes and continuing political rehabilitation. This will only perpetuate the injustices committed against the Filipinos.
The Basel Institute of Governance / International Center for Asset Recovery estimated that around $5 to $10 billion of Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth needs to be recovered from Switzerland and the US. As of 2009, only $658 million have been recovered.
Several compromise agreements have been initiated by previous administrations. In 1993, the Ramos government through the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) entered into a 75 percent – 25 percent sharing agreement with the Marcoses. The Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA), a group of martial law victims that led the filing of the class action suit against the Marcoses in Hawaii, rejected the arrangement as anomalous.
On Sept. 13, 1995 while Imelda Marcos was appealing and contesting the US Federal Court decision before the US Court of Appeals in the class suit of human rights victims, Atty. Robert Swift, the court-appointed counsel of victims, and PCGG hatched a compromise agreement accepting a $150 million monetary settlement, in exchange for the dropping of the entire class suit. According to SELDA, Swift made this unilateral move, without adequate consultation with the victims. The martial law victims protested and President Ramos was forced not to sign the agreement.
On Dec. 9, 1998 under the Estrada administration, the Supreme Court declared the Dec. 28, 1993 agreement invalid. In February 1999, after SELDA’s opposition before the US Hawaii Court Judge Manuel Real on the said settlement, Real finally nullified the $150 million compromise settlement agreement.
Under the Arroyo administration, in 2004, P544 million in recovered Marcos wealth were used in the Department of Agriculture’s fertilizer program which was exposed as a scam, and serious allegations were made on the diversion of said funds to election campaign.
With the Duterte administration’s facilitation of the political rehabilitation of the Marcoses through the hero’s burial of dictator Ferdinand and political horse-trading with the Marcos family, it is very important that Filipinos, especially the martial law victims and their families, keep a close watch on what transpires.
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