Marcos' settle for US$150 million

Marcos' settle for US$150 million

MANILA (AFP): The family of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos on Friday announced a US$150 million settlement with victims who were tortured during his ironfisted rule, but insisted it was not an admission of guilt.

In a statement, the family and their American lawyer James Paul Linn stressed that none of the Marcoses has ever been sued or prosecuted for human rights violations.

"The Marcos family agreed to this settlement not from a sense of guilt," said the statement, issued after Philippine newspapers bannered the deal announced by lawyers from both sides in Los Angeles earlier this week.

The statement highlighted how neither Marcos nor any member of his family had ever been "charged with any human rights violations, civilly or criminally, anywhere in the world, including the Philippines".