The Katotohanan at Katarungan Foundation - reportedly composed of former military agents and disgruntled leftists - said that only these 135 victims can expect to be paid out of the $150-million compromise settlement.

This developed as senators urged President Estrada to reject the US-brokered settlement between the Marcos heirs and the victims, claiming the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) erred in waiving its rights over part of the $590 million in Marcos accounts in Switzerland.

Senators Franklin Drilon, Teofisto Guingona and Renato Cayetano said during a hearing yesterday that the PCGG waiver has no legal basis and that the President - who has given his preliminary approval of the deal - was ill-advised on the issue.

The senators, at the same time, stressed that they are not against compensation for the human rights victims but are merely concerned that the government may forfeit the excess of the $150 million in case the Hawaii court sets a lower amount for the final agreement.

The group presented a book-length document, entitled "Controversy over Human Rights Claims Against the Estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos: Insights into the Deceptions, Twists and Misrepresentations," which denounces what it calls a "grand conspiracy" against the Marcos estate.

According to the foundation, there were only 3,000 claimants - among them the 135 certifiable claims - and "the names submitted were not thoroughly checked and verified."

The document claimed that the list of victims was later bloated to reach 9,539, in whose favor Judge Manuel Real of the Hawaii Court ruled in 1995 to grant $2 billion for damages committed during the dictatorial regime.

This figure was later negotiated to $150 million.

The group said the bloated list included rights violations dating back to the pre-war years up to the period covering the first two years of the Aquino administration.

But in the Hawaii ruling, the period covered was from September 1972 to February 1986, accounting for a total 1,330 cases. Of this number, 504 were attributed to the communist New People's Army, leaving the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos allegedly responsible for only 743, the group claimed.

A more thorough study and investigation of the list would definitely bring the figure down further since most of the cases attributed to Marcos "did not have dates of occurrence," the foundation said.

The group stressed that based on the list of the human rights commission, "there were more rights violations during the regime of Mrs. Corazon Aquino than during the Marcos administration." In bolstering its claims of a "grand conspiracy," the group said that the conspirators cannot show and publish a complete list of the 9,539 alleged victims.

"Remit only the actual amount"

Under the controversial settlement, the Philippine government must require the Philippine National Bank to transfer the $150 million by wire from the escrow account to the Plaintiff Settlement fund at a bank to be designated by the Hawaii Court within 10 days after the preliminary approval of the accord.

But Drilon insisted that the government must first set aside the $150 million and remit only the actual amount ordered to be paid by the court to the victims.

The remaining balance of the Swiss account, Drilon said, must be subjected to attachment proceedings to cover the P23.47-billion tax liabilities of the Marcoses.

Guingona, for his part, said the PCGG "usurped" the powers of the Sandiganbayan which has sole jurisdiction over the case.

He said the ownership of the $590 million in recovered Swiss funds is still being litigated, making it premature for the PCGG to waive the government's right over the disputed amount.

During yesterday's hearing, PCGG commissioners George Sarmiento and Antonio Rosales admitted they had based their waiver on President Estrada's pronouncement that he is willing to implement the US court's ruling.

Aside from the waiver issue, the immunity provision which "forever" releases the Marcoses from civil and criminal liabilities between 1972 and 1986 has also been cited as enough basis for the President to reject the settlement.

"Oppression can't be deodorized"

With or without the settlement, the Marcos family cannot "deodorize" the two decades of oppression and inhumanity to fellow Filipinos committed by the late dictator, Bohol Rep. Ernesto Herrera said yesterday.

Describing the Marcoses as "an insidious evil," Herrera said the Marcos heirs are trying to rid themselves of the responsibility of having "stolen the freedom and pride of an entire generation of Filipinos."

"No amount of washing or outrageous lies will change the tragic and horrifying fact -- that Filipinos were prisoners in their own country for 20 years," Herrera said.

Meanwhile, former First Lady Imelda Marcos chided Sen. Drilon yesterday for virtually preempting the Bureau of Internal revenue (BIR) on the implementation of the Supreme Court ruling ordering them to pay P23 billion in tax arrears.

"I think it is premature for him to talk about our immediate payment of the taxes when there are legal remedies we can resort to. He cannot dictate how we are going to pay our taxes," she said.

At Malacañang yesterday, Presidential Spokesman Fernando Barican said the BIR can levy the Marcos tax arrears on the family`s sequestered assets.

Barican pointed out that even if the sequestered assets are under litigation, "taxes take priority over everything else."

By Perseus Echeminada, Jose Rodel Clapano, Marichu Villanueva