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By Cheryl M. Arcibal, Reporter
Last of Four Parts
The 22-year-old case of Aberca v. Ver is still
languishing in the courts. In December last year, the Court of
Appeals upheld its 2003 decision reversing the awarding of damages
of the Quezon City Trial Court to the plaintiffs and ordered the
case remanded to the lower court. The case had been pending in the
appellate court since 1995.
Jose Manuel Diokno said the plaintiffs have
asked the Supreme Court to review the decision of the appellate
court.
The Court of Appeals ruled that it is best to
hear the case again to give the parties a chance to air their causes
fairly and openly without resulting in technicalities.
On the decision of the Hawaii court ordering
compensation for human-rights victims during Marcos’s term, Rod
Domingo said they (claimants) filed a petition before the Supreme
Court in 1999 seeking the enforcement of the Hawaii decision.
The Court has yet to act on the case and Domingo
said they had filed a case against the Supreme Court before the
United Nations Human Rights Commission.
Instead of answering their complaint, Domingo
said, the Court asked the UN to dismiss the complaint, arguing that
the P400 filing fee paid by the Marcos claimants to a lower court
was not enough and that the correct amount was P372 million.
“It was ridiculous so we did not pay it,”
Domingo said.
As for attaching properties of the Marcos family
to satisfy the judgment awarded by the Hawaii court, Domingo said
they were able to trace a house and lot in Honolulu, Hawaii, as a
property of the Marcos family. The property was allegedly placed in
the name of a Marcos crony.
“Actually, we have already recovered more than
$1 million from the judgment. This comes from a property in Hawaii,
which was placed in the name of one of the corporations of
Bienvenido Tantoco. . . . We ran after that property but the
Tantocos instead paid $1 million in cash so that [money] is now
deposited in the US district court. And then there is an old
Mercedes Benz, which the Marcoses used while they were in Honolulu.
We were able to attach that also. We already sold that but the
amount was very minimal,” he said.
Even among the 9,539 human-rights claimants,
issues have cropped up, causing a split in the group. The issues
involved the identification and validation of the claimants.
As with the enforcement of the award of
compensation to human-rights victims, several matters would have to
be ironed out before Congress would be able to pass the compensation
bill.
The issues include the manner and even
evaluation of compensating the victims.
But all is not bleak. The compensation bill
includes a provision on the documentation of the human-rights
violations, paving the way for a formal record on the matter in the
country.
Parong said that because a provision in the bill
states that the University of the Philippines would be part of the
compensation board, the records and documents to be collected on the
proceedings of the board could be turned over to the UP library.
While the Philippines is a signatory to several
international treaties condemning and banning torture in any form, a
specific law has yet to be crafted to criminalize torture in the
country.
Rep. Etta Rosales said the bill is pending
before the Committee on Human Rights and she hopes the committee
would be able to pass it soon.
The FLAG and FIDS said that in the absence of a
specific law against torture, it could not be recognized as a crime
per se or under civil law, as an actionable wrong per se.
The FLAG said a law which defines torture, its
nature, consequences and remedies should be drawn up.
A study on the feasibility of establishing a
Truth and Reconciliation Commission would also have to be made so
that the victims, the perpetrators and the government could finally
close that dark chapter of the country’s history.
While human-rights victims and political
analysts pushed for having a Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
they were divided over its possible success and how the committee
should conduct itself, especially the possible grant of immunity and
amnesty to torturers.
Neri Javier Colmenares, a lawyer for the
victims, said he believes that all such commissions failed because
their creation requires that the victims pursue a criminal case
against the alleged abusers.
Besides, Colmenares added, a TRC could never
ascertain the sincerity of a military officer confessing his crime.
Domingo doubts if the implicated military
officers would willingly admit their abuses, noting that their
admissions could spark some “repercussions since human-rights
victims here are suspected members of the New People’s Army”.
Parong said a discussion on having a TRC and how
it would conduct its affairs should also be made. Even Rosales said
the idea “is worth discussing.”
Parong said the TFDP was compelled to put up a
“martial law museum” in its main office, following the
announcement in 1998 of then-President Joseph Estrada that he would
allow the burial of the strongman Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan
ng mga Bayani. The succeeding protests and rallies against
Estrada’s announcement forced Estrada not to proceed with the
plan.
Parong said they want the museum accredited as a
Unesco site. He also appealed to schools to bring their pupils and
students to the museum so that part of history would not be
forgotten.
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