Senator irked by Palace 'snub' of human rights compensation bill

Senator Joker Arroyo on Thursday criticized Malacañang for excluding the bill seeking compensation for martial law victims on its list of priority measures. “It is sickening that it should be an American court that first judicially recognized the sufferings of human rights victims while no Filipino government institution has come around to doing it," Arroyo said in a statement. He was referring to the ruling of Judge Manuel Real of the US District Court of Hawaii last January ordering the distribution of $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by thousands of human rights victims under the regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos. “We honor those who joined EDSA in February 1986. But we fail to recognize the horrors suffered for 14 years by human rights victims who had earlier fought and helped prepare the groundwork so that EDSA would happen," said Arroyo, a noted human rights lawyer during the Marcos administration. He asked whether the “hotshots" in the Palace forgot that President Benigno Aquino III’s father, Benigno Aquino Jr., was himself a human rights victim. Under Senate Bill 2615 filed by Sen. Serge Osmeña III, beneficiaries shall be given compensation proportional to the gravity of the abuse committed against them. Victims who died, were tortured, detained, harassed or “economically disadvantaged" shall be given priority in that order, the bill states. Arroyo, however, said there should be no problem regarding the funding for the compensation package because P10 billion of the Marcos Swiss deposits is in trust with the National Treasurer. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMA News