Rights victims to get Marcos wealth

Rights victims to get Marcos wealth

PHILIPPINES: The Philippines will use part of the US$683 million recovered from Ferdinand Marcos' embezzled wealth to compensate the human rights victims of the late dictator's rule, officials said on Thursday.

Ruben Carranza, a commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) said that he stressed the commitment in a meeting with Swiss authorities who authorized the release of the funds that had been tracked by the government agency in Swiss banks.

Carranza said he briefed the Swiss authorities on pending legislation to allocate part of the Marcos wealth for the human rights victims.

President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said that she had ordered that about eight billion pesos ($146.2 million) of the Swiss money be placed in escrow so that it could eventually be used to compensate the human rights victims. --AFP