Battle over Marcos fortune hounds Philippines
By Jason Gutierrez
MANILA (AFP): Fourteen years after a popular revolt ousted Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the endless legal battle over his allegedly stolen fortune remains a bitter reminder to victims of human rights abuses that justice has yet to be served.
Former political prisoners spearheaded a claim to a portion of the Marcos estate as compensation for torture, arrests, killings and disappearances during his 20-year rule, ended by a military- led uprising that sent him into exile on Feb. 25, 1986. He died in 1989 in Hawaii.
"Many of the victims were dead when we started this litigation, more have died since and many live in poverty. The time is well past, these people need the money, it's time to conclude this matter and compensate the victims," said American lawyer Robert Swift, lead counsel for a group of claimants.
"We believe that it is essential that the human rights victims be compensated now."
The lawyer arrived here last week to press the Marcos heirs, who have regained a measure of political influence in recent years and fended off corruption charges since returning from exile, to implement a US$150 million settlement before the deadline expires on Feb. 28.
He warned that if the heirs fail to settle, the victims would demand the original amount of $2 billion in damages awarded by a Hawaii district court after they won a class action suit in 1994.
The Marcos family, led by his flamboyant widow Imelda, has yet to respond.
Nearly 10,000 human rights victims filed the class action suit against the estate of Marcos, who was said to have illegally amassed billions of dollars while in power and stashed the money in bank deposits, properties and other assets across the globe.
Tracing the money, not to mention claiming it, has been difficult. So far about $540 million has been found in Swiss accounts, and the money is being held in escrow until conflicting claims are resolved.
Apart from the human rights victims, the Philippine government and the Marcos family are also claiming the Swiss funds.
Tales of a Marcos gold hoard, with one estimate putting its worth at $65 billion, continue to crop up, but his former information minister, now Senator Francisco Tatad, branded it a story "straight from Ali Baba."
Swift said that over the years the Marcoses have had the opportunity to shield their wealth, "and we may never know its full extent."
Rommel De Vera, a director of a group called Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, whose members are also claimants, said many of the victims are now in dire straits.
"Many do not want to settle, but they need the money," De Vera told AFP.
"If there is a breakthrough and they get the money this February, that would give them some sort of financial freedom, but if they look back 10 years from now it would seem that the struggle for justice was for nothing," he said.
President Joseph Estrada is widely perceived to be sympathetic to the Marcoses, and in 1998 caused an uproar when he proposed giving Ferdinand Marcos a hero's burial. The former president's remains are in a mausoleum in his northern hometown.
Apart from enjoying a more hospitable political climate under Estrada, whose predecessor Fidel Ramos was a leader of the 1986 "people power" uprising against Marcos, the Marcos family has also scored crucial legal victories.
The Supreme Court reversed Imelda Marcos' conviction in a graft case, saving her from a 12-year jail term.
Her daughter Imee was elected to Congress and son Ferdinand Junior was elected governor of the family bailiwick of Ilocos Norte province north of Manila.