Syndicate hounding claimants, says CHR

LEGAZPI CITY—A Commission on Human Rights (CHR) official on Monday warned of a syndicate enticing people to become beneficiaries of a compensation package for martial law victims for a fee.

Karen Gomez-Dumpit, CHR director of government linkages, said members of the syndicate had been hounding legitimate beneficiaries so their names would not be stricken off the list of claimants.

The warning came as the agency awaited the appearance of 387 victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime to receive P50,000 each as compensation for the abuses they suffered during martial law in the 1970s.

A total of P19.3 million will go to the victims from the six provinces in Bicol, Dumpit said. The amount is the victims’ share from a court-ordered settlement that arose from a class suit filed in the United States against the estate of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Dumpit, in a phone interview, said the P50,000 was part of the second tranche arising from the $10-million settlement of a case involving a British millionaire who bought a Monet painting believed to be part of the ill-gotten Marcos art collection.  Reports said the buyer had agreed to the settlement for as long as he would not be dragged into the case.

The first tranche amounting to P43,000 was distributed in 2012 to each of the victims for a total of P16.6 million. It came from the $7.5 million awarded to 10,000 martial law victims following a 2011 ruling by a US court in Hawaii on a class suit filed by Robert Swift, the American lead counsel of the claimants.

As early as 4 a.m. on Monday, Myrna Gallardo, a daughter of a human rights abuse victim, and other persons from Sorsogon province were at the CHR office to collect their compensation checks. Mar S. Arguelles, Inquirer Southern Luzon