MANILA, Philippines -- The Honolulu court ruling compensating thousands of Filipino human rights victims during the Marcos regime could not be enforced here, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said on Sunday.

"I'm wondering why the judge in America is dictating on us on the matter. They have no jurisdiction (here)," Enrile said in a radio interview.

"If they (the human rights victims) want that decision enforced here, they should file a case in (a local) court," he said.

A federal judge in Honolulu approved on Thursday the distribution of $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by thousands of victims of torture, execution and abduction under the regime of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

Enrile, then minister of national defense, was one of the lead implementers of martial law.

Under the plan approved by US District Judge Manuel Real, each eligible member of the class action lawsuit will be awarded $1,000.

Enrile, however, said that the courts should first establish that indeed, human rights violations were committed under martial law.

"Martial law was an act of State under the Constitution. It was not done arbitrarily," he said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joker Arroyo said he would support any bill providing compensation for the rights victims, adding that it would be a big boost if President Aquino certified it as "urgent."

Arroyo, a human rights lawyer during the Marcos years, recalled that in the 13th Congress, the Senate ratified a compensation bill for the victims, but the House of Representatives failed to do the same, leaving the measure in limbo.

There's now a fresh push for the approval of similar legislation in the 15th Congress.

"Noynoy will be a big help because his father was one of the victims," Arroyo said over radio.

The President?s father, opposition Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., was a political prisoner during the martial law years. Allowed to go abroad for medical treatment, he was assassinated on his return home from the US in August 1983.

A problem, however, would arise if finance officials would oppose any compensation for the rights victims, Arroyo said.