Marcos’s victims to get compensation, including PIME martyr Fr Favali
The distribution of a third tranche of compensation set by a US court starts in Mindanao. Each of the 6,500 parties to the class action will get a check worth US$ 1,500. For PIME missionary, “PIME will use the money to help the families of those who courageously testified in court during the trial of Fr Tullio’s death.”
Manila (AsiaNews) – At least 140 victims of torture, summary execution and enforced disappearance during the Marcos dictatorship or members of their families each received a check for P77,500 (US$ 1,500) as part of the compensation awarded by a Hawaii district court, which ruled on a class action suit against the estate of Ferdinand Marcos.
This was the third pay-out ordered by the court after Marcos was overthrown in 1986. The checks were to be distributed nationwide to the documented members, starting on Wednesday in Butuan City, Caraga Region, Mindanao Island.
The Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) will also receive compensation, 34 years after the assassination of one of its members, Fr Tullio Favali (pictured). The missionary was killed execution style on 11 April 1985, in Tulunan, in the Diocese of Kidapawan, by one of the paramilitary groups that supported the regime.
US lawyer Robert Swift will personally hand over the checks to the approximately 6,500 victims (or heirs) entitled to them. The lawyer represented the plaintiffs from the start of the case in 1990.
Five years later, the class action was awarded about US$ 2 billion in compensation, but the full amount could not be paid out because the Marcoses were still hiding their wealth.
In 2011, Swift’s law firm handed out the first tranche of P43,000 (US$ 830), and the second tranche of P50,000 (US$ 965) in 2013.
Originally, the parties to the class action numbered close to 10,000, but many were unable to present all the necessary documentation requested by the Court and so could not receive compensation.
Most of the claimants, who lost their loved ones to the atrocities committed by the Marcos regime, are now in their 60s, 70s and 80s.
Last March, District Court Judge Manuel Real approved a .75-million settlement to the victims from the -million proceeds from the sale of four paintings previously acquired by Marcos’ widow, Imelda.
The paintings, including one of Impressionist master Claude Monet’s famous “Water Lily” series, disappeared in 1986 and surfaced in July 2013 after the arrest of Imelda’s former aide, Vilma Bautista.
The current Filipino government has opposed the US court decision and has tried to block the settlements even though it has been awarded 4 million dollars.
PIME is set to receive one third of the compensation, Fr Pietro Geremia, 80, one of its missionaries in Mindanao, told AsiaNews.
"In recent weeks I received a summon,” the clergyman said. “On 27 May I will go to Cotabato to receive the check on behalf of Fr Tullio Favali. I also received the two previous pay-outs. However, I feel sorry for those victims of the regime who will not be able to benefit from them.”
"I am not aware of any attempt to block the hand-out. I have heard some rumours, but they have not been confirmed,” Fr Geremia noted.
Still, “President Rodrigo Duterte has always shown great sympathy for Marcos. He honoured him by authorising his burial in the nation's Heroes' Cemetery. Some people linked to the dictatorship are also among the main supporters of the current administration."
As in two previous occasions, “PIME will use the money to help the families of those who courageously testified in court during the trial of Fr Tullio’s death. Some of the people are already dead, but their families still need help."
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21/09/2022
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