Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume IV, Number 22 July 4 - 10, 2004 Quezon City, Philippines |
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCHMartial
Law Victims’ P8Bn Now in Gloria’s Hands
Did
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo use for her election campaign P8 billion
intended for indemnification of martial law human rights victims?
According to human rights groups, the fund was quietly
transferred from the Philippine National Bank two months before elections
directly into the hands of the national government. BY
DABET CASTAŃEDA
Marie
Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of Selda (Society of Ex-Detainees
Against Detention and for Amnesty), said that technically, this would mean
that the funds are now in the hands of Macapagal-Arroyo. Hilao-Enriquez
said the transfer was done “clandestinely” on the second week of March
when the the Custodianship Agreement between the government and the PNB
ended. She
described the move as suspicious because the transaction happened at the
height of the election campaign. In
a telephone interview with Bulatlat.com, Hilao-Enriquez could not
help but ask: “Did Macapagal-Arroyo use the funds for our
indemnification to prop up her election campaign?” Transfer
of funds
The
Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), through its Information
Officer Nick Suarez, confirmed to Bulatlat.com on June 30 that the
escrow account was transferred from the PNB to the BSP and LBP in the
second week of March. Suarez
said the custodianship agreement was terminated so that the government can
save on custodianship fees. He
admitted however that the transfer means the Office of the President
through the Bureau of the Treasury now has complete control over the
funds. The
PCGG officer also confirmed that the funds are in fact now being used by
the Department of Agriculture to pay advances to the LBP. “When
we credit it to the National Treasury, it will be credited with the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and the CARP is now using it
to pay advances incurred with the Land Bank,” Suarez said.
In the absence of a law that says part of the recovered ill-gotten wealth shall go to martial law victims, Suarez said he is not sure if the money allotted for them has already been used. “I
hope not,” he said. “Let
us not miss this chance of indemnifying the victims.”
Indemnification
Hilao-Enriquez
recalls that in 1992 the 10,000 martial law victims won the class suit
against the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos after filing it with the Federal
Court in Hawaii six years earlier. But the successful claimants – many
of whom were killed or abducted without a trace and were represented only
by surviving kin in the suit – have been waiting for 12 years to be
indemnified. Selda
records show that the Federal Court decision found Marcos guilty of gross
human rights violations while the Estate of Marcos was made liable to pay
damages to the victims. This meant that as part of justice and
indemnification, the 10,000 victims shall be awarded compensation, the
amount of which should be taken from the Marcos ill-gotten wealth
recovered by the Philippine government.
The
escrow account
Coinciding
with the commemoration of Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, 1997, the Swiss
Supreme Court issued a decision transferring US$540 million from an
account believed to be part of Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth. The
funds were transferred to an escrow account in the PNB. According to
Hilao-Enriquez, it was originally US$356 million when sequestered. It
reached US$540 million when it was finally transferred to PNB and further
increased to US$684 million just before PNB surrendered it to the national
treasury. The
Swiss court allowed the fund transfer to the PNB on the condition that it
would be proven ill-gotten and that part of it shall go to the 10,000
victims. It also upheld the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) that
states that all ill-gotten wealth recovered by the state shall go to the
government’s agrarian reform program.
Custodianship
Agreement
Formalizing
PNB’s stewardship of the funds was a Custodianship Agreement signed last
Jan. 30 between the Philippine government, through the Department of
Finance/Bureau of Treasury represented by Eduardo Sergio G. Edeza, and the
PNB-Trust Banking Group represented by Ma. Elena Sarmiento and Rogel
Zenarosa. Section
II of the agreement created a Custodianship Account, with the account
amounting to US$624,044,905.55 as of the day it was signed. This excludes
the US$22 million left with the WestLB AG, a German Bank in Singapore, and
the US$30 million set aside as contingent fund to answer litigation
expenses and lawyers fees if the need arises. No
law for indemnification
The
1987 Constitution, as amended, states that all ill-gotten wealth recovered
from the Marcos Estate shall go to the CARP, the agrarian reform program
instituted by then President Corazon Aquino.
However,
in 2001, the party-list group Bayan Muna (People’s First) filed House
Bill 4535, a bill that sought to allot part of the recovered Marcos loot
for the victims’ indemnification. The
bill got only until the House of Representatives and failed to be approved
at the bicameral committee level. On
this note, Hilao-Enriquez called on the president to certify the law as
urgent when the new Congress convenes to show her sincerity in giving
justice to the 10,000 victims of martial rule. Suarez,
on the other hand, said, “I understand the sentiments of the human
rights victims. Since there
is no law to indemnify them, their fear that the funds may be used for
other purposes is valid.” The
PCGG officer also said that some victims already went to their office in
Mandaluyong to file their claims and that the PCGG is entertaining them.
Suspicious
In
a statement emailed to media, the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines (NDFP) expressed serious concern to the Arroyo government’s
(GRP) peace panel “over the transfer under suspicious circumstances”
of the funds. “The
timing of the transfer of the Marcos money on the second week of March
coincides with the height of the presidential election campaign period,”
the statement said. In
an interview with Bulatlat.com, Fidel Agcaoili, a member of the
NDFP peace panel, said the transfer of funds if found to be true is a
violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights
and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), the human rights agreement
signed by both parties in 1998. Added
to that, both parties signed another agreement at the end of the second
round of formal negotiations last April 3, the Second Joint Oslo
Agreement. The agreement states in part that the Arroyo government shall
set aside PhP8 billion (US$150 million) for the 10,000 victims. “The
GRP (Philippine government) is under obligation to provide justice to the
victims,” he said. Transparency
In
the wake of accusations that Arroyo government used the funds for the
elections, Hilao-Enriquez calls on the president to report to the public
where the funds have gone. “Since
the issue is of public interest, the government has the responsibility to
make a public accounting of the funds,” she said.
“We
also hold the president responsible and make true her promise of not
touching the money intended to indemnify the 10,000 victims when the funds
were transferred to the Philippine government in January,” she added.
“Can we still hold on to her word?” she asked. Hilao-Enriquez
also said that the segregation of the PhP8 billion for the victims could
also be done in an executive action in the same manner that the US$30
million was segregated for litigation and lawyers’ fees.
“If
there will be no transparency in this issue then our fears must be true
– the money was used to fund some election-related projects or maybe as
payment for the national deficit. If this is so, then the long quest for
justice has already been lost,” she said.
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