MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III has asked Congress to pass a long list of priority bills of his administration, including the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill, but he has yet to show similar and urgent support for a measure to help the very people for whom his parents had fought, according to rights abuse victims of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
The Marcos victims compensation bill should be among those that should have been given priority status, considering that the President’s parents were key figures in the fight against the Marcos dictatorship, said the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda).
“We are appalled by the utter insensitivity of President Aquino, a son of a martial law victim, who is instead prioritizing a bill which furthers the violation of civil and political rights through amendments to the Human Security Act, while he has not lifted a finger for Congress to urgently pass the long-awaited martial law indemnification bill,” Angie Ipong, Selda secretary general, said in a statement.
The President’s father, Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., a fierce critic of the Marcos regime, was brutally murdered upon his return from exile in the United States in 1983.
His assassination galvanized the anti-Marcos movement which culminated in the People Power revolution of 1986 that swept the President’s mother, Corazon Aquino, into office.
Earlier, Mr. Aquino said he expected the current Congress to pass his administration’s priority bills before his term ends in 2013.
According to Selda, the martial law victims had been waiting for justice for decades, and the President could have lent a helping hand.
“The process of seeking justice and reparation is so tedious and extremely difficult for the victims of martial rule. The victims are now very old, sickly and dying, but the struggle for justice has no rest. Putting closure to a dark portion of the nation’s history must include rendering justice to victims of that era,” Ipong said.
Futile effort?
She said the Aquino administration’s pursuit of justice would mean nothing if it did not help all the victims.
“Aquino’s use of bywords such as ‘justice’ remains empty PR rhetoric unless concrete measures are undertaken by his administration to render justice for all victims of human rights violations,” she said.
Selda has called on the House of Representatives and the Senate to fast-track the passage of the pending human rights compensation bill.
Some 7,500 Marcos rights abuse victims received $1,000 in February 2011 to partly fulfill a $2-billion judgment that they won in a class action suit against Marcos’ heirs in a United States court in 1995. A US federal jury awarded the money after finding Marcos liable for torture, summary executions and the disappearances of political opponents during his 20-year rule.
The victims have not been able to collect the entire settlement because of disputes over Marcos’ properties. The Philippine government maintains that all Marcos properties were stolen from the Filipino people and has fought their distribution to rights abuse victims.
The government has instead asked Congress to pass a law that would indemnify the victims. A human rights compensation bill pending in Congress seeks to allocate P8 billion in ill-gotten wealth recovered from the Marcoses as compensation for the rights abuse victims.
Selda said the continuing failure to pass the bill has hampered the process of indemnification.