The Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (Selda) yesterday disclosed that Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora had agreed to the human rights claimants' request to immediately release 30 percent of the money.

Under the formula, the family of those who disappeared during the Marcos dictatorship will get a higher percentage of the share.

Sison and his parents had filed a human rights complaint against the Marcoses for the disappearance of his brother, Francisco, and a former soldier named Jaime Pioponco.

Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Selda secretary general, said Zamora made the commitment to Luis Jalandoni, chief of the National Democratic Front peace panel, and to Romeo Capulong, NDF legal consultant and Selda lawyer, during a courtesy call in Malacañang on Friday. Enriquez said Zamora also made commitments that the human rights claimants would receive 30 percent of all the other Marcos assets that would be recovered later by the government.

She said Zamora even agreed that the government would settle first the claims of the human rights victims before it conducted negotiations with the heirs of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Zamora also agreed that the compensation be given in the ''quickest and most direct'' means to the human rights victims as provided for by the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law between the government and NDF peace panels, according to Enriquez.

She said Zamora asked Capulong to submit today the proposed instruments on the manner and ways of facilitating the distribution of the claims.

The proposed instrument will be based on the formula already determined by the US district federal court which granted $1.9 billion in compensatory and exemplary damages to some 10,000 human rights victims during the Marcos dictatorship, according to Enriquez.

The formula calls for the compensation to be divided on a pro rata basis by the three groups of plaintiffs who originally filed the class suit.

Not bothered

In Manila, former President Corazon Aquino said she was not bothered by the return to power of the Marcoses and their cronies as long as the Estrada administration would not enter into compromise agreements with them.

Ms Aquino said she trusted that Mr. Estrada would not allow anyone, particularly the Marcoses and their cronies, to plunder the economy again.

She said she was optimistic that he would make good his promise to ''protect'' democracy and the economy. On Friday, Manila Archbishop Cardinal Sin reminded the administration that ''those who plundered our nation's patrimony are back to reclaim their spoils.''

But Mr. Estrada singled out businessman Eduardo ''Danding'' Cojuangco as the one referred to by the prelate. Cojuangco, the biggest Marcos crony, was recently elected chair of San Miguel Corp. He is Ms Aquino's cousin.

While the Marcoses and their cronies had made a political comeback, they should not be given ''favors'' again, Ms Aquino said. Their return, she said, should not be considered as a sign that they could wield their influence anew in running the country's affairs.

But Ms Aquino stressed that the Marcoses and their cronies would be prevented from regaining ''influence'' if the government would not give them ''compromises.'' For this reason, she said, the government should not enter into a compromise agreement with the Marcoses in exchange for the dropping of civil and criminal charges against them.

The Marcoses had agreed to a 75-25 settlement of the alleged ill-gotten wealth in favor of the government if they would be given ''complete immunity'' from suits. ''Entering into a compromise agreement with them will set a wrong precedent as this would prove that it was all right to rob the country dry,'' Ms Aquino said.

By Jowel F. Canuday, PDI Mindanao Bureau

With a report from Christine Herrera