HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Martial 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
Bulatlat.com

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.  Bulatlat.com

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