Martial law body negotiating access to DND, Nica records for claimants

BAGUIO CITY—A human rights body tasked with compensating martial law victims has negotiated access to old government records, including confidential military operations, that led to human rights violations during the regime of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

Lina Sarmiento, chair of  Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board (HRVCB), said the government’s security sector, including the Philippine National Police  and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Nica), had committed to open the records to people who require documentary evidence that they or their relatives were abducted, jailed, tortured or even killed during Marcos’ martial law.

Sarmiento said legitimate martial law victims were entitled to a share from a P10-billion reparation fund that HRVCB is required to distribute by the end of 2016, provided the incidents happened between Sept. 21, 1972, and Feb. 25, 1986.

Some of these victims, however, are too old and the documents proving that they were victims of atrocities, such as arrest warrants, may have been destroyed or have deteriorated, Sarmiento said.

Only these government agencies may help prove their right to reparations, she said.

Sarmiento, a retired police chief superintendent, said  HRVCB was  discussing how best to access valuable information kept by the Department of National Defense  and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, including “black operations” (a term for highly confidential military operations) that may have led to the disappearance of activists during the Marcos regime.

This may include access to soldiers or military officials who took part in these operations, she said, if civilian and military laws allow the state to compel retired soldiers to discuss their martial law assignments.

Sarmiento said the government was offering reparation so survivors of state-led atrocities could move on.

But she did not reply when asked whether providing claimants information about their detention may eventually lead to lawsuits against their abusers.

Sarmiento said the agency intended to open up liaison offices by the end of July to help claimants secure documents from the police and military offices.

An HRVCB fact sheet said “claimants who are conclusively presumed to be human rights violations victims [as defined by Republic Act No. 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013] are the plaintiffs in the class suit against the Marcos estate that won a favorable judgment before a United States Hawaiian court, and those recognized by  Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation.”

But Sarmiento said those who signed up would undergo an adjudication process before they are recognized as legitimate claimants and before the agency determines how much reparation they are entitled to.

The gravest atrocity, like murder, entitles a victim’s heir to a much higher reparation, according to RA 10368.

Sarmiento said claimants have until November this year to gather evidence from the PNP, Nica and other agencies before  HRVCB studies their applications.

The HRVCB has received more than 5,000 applications after visiting the cities of Angeles, Lucena, Calbayog, Tacloban, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Cotabato, Legazpi and San Fernando (La Union province).

Close to 400 of these claims were filed in the Ilocos region.

Cris Palabay, a former political detainee who volunteered to help in receiving the claims applications, said most of the claimants in the Ilocos came from the provinces of Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte.

“Those of us from La Union had to give way to those who came from the two provinces because they traveled from four to six hours just to get here,” Palabay said in a telephone interview.

“RA 10368 is the product of a long struggle of human rights violation victims for reparation and recognition,” said Lenville Salvador, a former political detainee from Laoag City.

Salvador said he was arrested and first detained in Ifugao province on May 11, 1983. In the following months, he was moved from one prison to another until he was finally detained in Laoag City. He was released in July 1984.

“I was tortured while in military custody,” said Salvador in an e-mail interview.

Palabay, who was detained in 1972 and 1974, said he and his siblings would file their claims in Metro Manila to put their suffering on record, and not for the money.

In Baguio City, one of the applicants was Ireneo Bandayrel, 72, who traveled from Abra province.

Bandayrel, a resident of Ubbog village in the capital Bangued town, said he was an employee of the Department of Public Works and Highways when he was arrested in 1985. He was released during the administration of President Corazon Aquino.  Reports from Vincent Cabreza, Gabriel Cardinoza, Kimberlie Quitasol and Desiree Caluza, Inquirer Northern Luzon