No $1,000 for other Marcos victims

MANILA, Philippines—Before Winnie Reyes died of a stroke in May last year, he asked his wife, Olivia, to take care of the letters he had received from lawyers handling the compensation claims of victims of human rights abuses during the Marcos regime.

Armed with the missives that her husband had kept and even photocopied, Olivia went to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Wednesday, hoping to claim the $1,000 check that each of the 7,526 martial law victims had won in a US court ruling against the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and his family.

But Winnie’s name was nowhere on the master list of claimants who were supposed to get the money (converted to P43,200) that would come from a settlement of the class-action suit.

Olivia was not alone. Several others who had been detained, beaten black and blue or had lost loved ones during Marcos’ strongman rule would not be getting any compensation because their names were not on the master list even though, they insisted, they had filed claims.

They walked away empty-handed from the CHR office, where the checks were handed out.

Most of the claimants are divided into two groups—Claimants 1081 and SELDA (Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya). The two groups have been at odds over various issues concerning the class suit, including the distribution of the money.

‘Eligible’ claims

Rod Domingo, one of the lawyers handling the case, explained that according to the US court order, only those who had filed claims in 1993 and 1999 would be getting the $1,000 settlement.

In its ruling on Jan. 13, 2011, the US District Court of Hawaii defined an “eligible” claim as that made “by a class member who submitted claim forms, as ordered by the court, in both 1993 and 1999 as memorialized in the database maintained by lead counsel for the court.”

The eligible claims numbered 7,526, the court said. Domingo said the lawyers are required to follow that specific figure derived from nearly 10,000 claimants.

He explained that the victims had been required to file their claims twice, and the second one would weed out any fraudulent claim made during the first wave of filing. “What we were doing was for their protection,” he said.

Domingo said that if there had been lapses and the claimants had missed the second deadline, they could have gotten in touch with him earlier so that he could have tried to do something to rectify the matter.

The claimants could have also contacted him to verify their claims, he said.

“But from 1999 up to 2011, what did they do? Maybe they did not believe [we would win]” Domingo said.

He said that if there were really those who had filed in 1993 and 1999 but were still excluded from the master list, he would look into the matter and the lawyers could file a motion in court asking for the inclusion of more names.

Being excluded from the master list does not mean that a person had not suffered during martial law, Domingo said. It only means they may not have followed the proper processes to be included among the eligible claimants, he said.

Arrested on birthday

Olivia said that as far as she knew, her husband had joined the claimants against the Marcoses. She even brought his release paper to show that her husband had been detained during martial law.

Winnie’s arrest was memorable, Olivia said, since it happened during his birthday. He was taken by authorities while working as a guard at La Tondeña, which was gripped by a strike in 1975—the first during martial law.

Olivia was looking forward to getting the check, not only because her husband had patiently waited for it, but because life has not been easy. She had intended to use it to pay off debts from usurers and start a “sari-sari” store, she said.

Cecilio Bejer, a member of the Caloocan chapter of SELDA, said he had properly filed his claims but found out that he was not on the master list.

Bejer said he received a letter in December last year, advising him of the distribution of checks. He has lost sleep over not getting the money, which would have helped him and his family, he said.

He said he had wanted to get in touch with Domingo and was willing to help him check the records of the claimants.

‘Tortured’ anew

Many unlisted victims or their relatives have gone to SELDA for help, Bejer said. Some, who had been jailed for four to seven years, lamented that not finding their names on the list of claimants was another form of “torture,” he recalled.

Others who had changed addresses in 1999 were not aware of the requirement to file a second claim.

Bejer sought transparency in determining who are the proper claimants.

Ruben Ofaga, 51, was also looking forward to the check, which he thought he would get after receiving a letter from Domingo in December last year.

Since he has no steady job, the money could have helped him and his eight children a lot, Ofaga said.

Those excluded from the master list were asked to leave their names and contact numbers with the CHR. They were told that their cases would be looked into.

Domingo said the lawyers had not made the names of the claimants public for security reasons.

There are concerns that the claimants might be robbed or subjected to extortion, he said.