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Arroyo to ask Philippines Congress for law on Marcos wealth
Manila, July 26: Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said today she would asked Congress to pass a law enabling human rights victims to get a share of wealth believed stolen by late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and awarded to the state.
Manila, July 26: Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said today she would asked Congress to pass a law enabling human rights victims to get a share of wealth believed stolen by late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and awarded to the state.
The President is scheduled to deliver her annual state
of the nation report to Congress on Monday.
The Supreme Court this month stripped the Marcos family of any claim to Swiss bank funds worth an estimated 680 million dollars.
The funds are believed part of an estimated 10 billion dollars stolen by Marcos from state coffers during his 20-year rule that ended in a popular revolt in 1986.
The court awarded the money to the government. Under the law, however, any ill-gotten wealth that is recovered is automatically diverted to the government's agrarian reform programme.
But arroyo said she believed families of activists who were tortured and murdered during the brutal Marcos regime should be compensated from the funds.
"I am asking Congress to pass a law to set aside eight billion pesos (150.94 million dollars) for compensation to the human rights victims under martial law," Arroyo said in a statement.
In 1995 a US federal court in Hawaii awarded two billion dollars to some 10,000 human rights victims who had filed a class action suit against estate of the dictator, who was chased into exile in Hawaii after the revolt. Bureau Report
The Supreme Court this month stripped the Marcos family of any claim to Swiss bank funds worth an estimated 680 million dollars.
The funds are believed part of an estimated 10 billion dollars stolen by Marcos from state coffers during his 20-year rule that ended in a popular revolt in 1986.
The court awarded the money to the government. Under the law, however, any ill-gotten wealth that is recovered is automatically diverted to the government's agrarian reform programme.
But arroyo said she believed families of activists who were tortured and murdered during the brutal Marcos regime should be compensated from the funds.
"I am asking Congress to pass a law to set aside eight billion pesos (150.94 million dollars) for compensation to the human rights victims under martial law," Arroyo said in a statement.
In 1995 a US federal court in Hawaii awarded two billion dollars to some 10,000 human rights victims who had filed a class action suit against estate of the dictator, who was chased into exile in Hawaii after the revolt. Bureau Report