Victims of Marcos compensated

Victims of Marcos compensated

MANILA (Reuters): The nearly 10,000 victims of human rights abuses during late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos's rule will probably each get about $15,000 under a tentative settlement with the Marcos family, their lawyers said on Saturday.

Under the settlement, the Marcos family agreed to pay the victims a total of $150 million but legal fees and expenses of the victims' lawyers would still have to be deducted from the amount, the victims' Filipino counsel Rod Domingo told reporters.

A total of 9,539 Filipinos asked for damages against the Marcos estate in a class action civil suit they filed before the U.S. district court in Hawaii.

Marcos died in exile in Hawaii three years after he was ousted in a popular revolt.

The court found the Marcos estate liable for damages in 1993 and awarded the victims about $2 billion. The victims' lawyers said they decided on a compromise settlement to avoid further legal battles.

Former first lady Imelda Marcos and her son, Ferdinand Jr, have signed the accord on the compromise settlement, the lawyers said. Marcos' son confirmed the accord on Saturday.

The agreement is still provisional as it has to be finally approved by the Hawaii court which will supervise distribution of the money, Domingo said.

The Philippine government, which has accused the Marcoses of looting the Treasury and is claiming their assets as well, also has to approve the settlement. President Joseph Estrada said recently he was willing to give the victims' just compensation. Under the agreement, a copy of which was released in Manila by Domingo, the victims renounce all further civil claims against the Marcoses for any human rights violations.

A leading Manila human rights lawyer, Rene Saguisag, said "the battle is not over."

"Our ultimate goal for the healing to begin is that there must be an admission and apology on the part of these world class human rights violators," Saguisag told reporters.

The text of the agreement released in Manila contained no explicit statement that the Marcos regime had abused human rights.

Domingo said the money would be drawn from the half billion dollars of Marcos deposits in Swiss banks. Switzerland has transferred the deposits to an escrow account in Manila pending a ruling by a Philippine court on who actually owns the money.