Press Statement                                                                                             Reference: Marie Hilao-Enriquez
16 January, 2004                                                                                           Secretary-General

Martial Law Rights Violations Victims pushes for opening of Trust Fund for Marcos' ill-gotten wealth

The Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA), the organization that initiated and won the class action suit against Marcos for human rights violations during martial law, welcomes the recent action of the Supreme Court ordering the Sandiganbayan to execute the transfer of the $683 Million Marcos ill-gotten wealth to the Philippine Government.

"This is good news,"declared Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Secretary General of SELDA. "This only proves further that Marcos was a thief and that he must return what he stole from the Filipino people."

However, despite the positive development, the Martial Law rights violations victims expressed apprehension over the next move of the
Macapagal-Arroyo Government.

"While we are happy that the realization of the recovery of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth is at hand we are deeply worried that the money will not be dispensed for the purpose it is intended for." Enriquez said.  "We fear that the money will go instead to the Macapagal-Arroyo campaign fund for the 2004 elections, specially now that both the House of Representatives and the Senate failed to pass any law that would ensure that the money will be kept safely and dispensed to both CARP farmers and the 10,000 rights victims."

It is very easy to make statements that the funds will be used for the benefits of the farmers and the victims but once the money enters the general budget, these can be channeled to so-called "priority and other projects," and the public may never know what happened to these. Citing the P700 million earnings from the Coco Levy fund, which in 2002, was turned over to the control of the President, who announced that it will be used to uplift the lives of the coconut farmers, the nation has yet to receive a report on what happened to the fund, Enriquez noted.

SELDA doubts President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's sincerity in carrying out her promise of compensating the victims of martial law human rights violations. So far, she has only been making pronouncements to compensate the victims but her actions remain to be seen. Her promises to the vitcims have created false hopes for the rights violations victims.

"With the Legislative and Executive bodies seemingly conniving on stalling the enactment into law of House Bill 4535 and Senate Bill 1877, we at SELDA urge the government to push for the setting up of a Trust Fund for the Marcos ill-gotten wealth so that these will not be used for electioneering. After elections, the portion allotted for the martial victims must remain in the trust fund until such time that the victims compensation law be enacted. A monitoring body, in which the victims must be represented, must also be set up to monitor the funds and make a regular public reporting on where and what is happening to the funds. We will also ask the Swiss Government's assistance to ensure that the Philippine Government follow the other condition for the escrow account, which is to compensate the martial law victims, and to monitor the funds." Enriquez said.

We also will lobby hard to include the compensation and justice issue in the forthcoming formal peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines," Enriquez concluded. ###