FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY — “Your mailing system sucks.” This was how American lawyer Robert Swift expressed his dismay over what he described as the inefficiency of the country’s postal system.
Swift made the comment when told that about 30 percent of the victims of atrocities committed during Ferdinand Marcos’ regime in Southern Mindanao were not aware they were to receive compensation starting Feb. 3 up to Feb. 5 for their sufferings under martial law.
The notices were sent via priority mail, which should have taken a shorter time to deliver, but even up to last Wednesday, many claimants said they had not received theirs.
“I’m so disappointed by your mailing system,” Swift said during the last day of the distribution here of P50,000 checks on Wednesday for claimants in the Davao region.
The money was part of $10 million that the Hawaii Federal Court had ordered released to martial law human rights victims.
Swift, who had represented martial law victims in their suit against the Marcos estate, said his group had relied so much on the postal system and had spent “a lot of money for the mails” because they believed that “that’s the best way we can reach you.”
Swift appeared irritated after being repeatedly told by a group of martial law victims that many claimants did not know they were to be paid until Wednesday.
Among those who failed to get the notice was Gabriela Partylist Rep Luz Ilagan, who said she would ask Congress to look into the performance of the Philippine Postal Corp. or PHLPost.
“We expect them to be efficient because that’s the reason they were privatized in the first place,” Ilagan said.
Ilagan said when she realized she did not have the notice, she sent out somebody to the post office here to verify her mail. She said she was told that some of the notices might still be inside an unopened bag of letters that was sitting in a corner of the post office here.
“But who will sort them out? Do they expect us to do it?” Ilagan said.
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