$580-M MARCOS DEPOSIT--Rights victims want 30 pct in advance

VICTIMS of human rights violations during martial law want to collect a 30-percent share of the $580-million Marcos deposit ''in advance'' and leave the Estrada administration and the heirs of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos to negotiate the disposition of the balance.

This was disclosed yesterday by lawyer Rod Domingo, co-counsel of the nearly 10,000 rights victims who had won a class suit against the Marcos estate in a US district court.

Domingo said the rights victims did not want to get involved in the ''protracted negotiations'' between Marcos' heirs and the government.

''The rights victims wish to rebuild their lives soonest,'' Domingo told the Inquirer in a telephone interview. ''Simply, settle the compensation claims first.''

For this reason, he said, Robert Swift, lead counsel of the rights victims, had been in contact with former first lady Imelda Marcos' American lawyer James Linn.

''Robert Swift and James Linn have been in constant touch, and settlement talks are ongoing,'' Domingo said.

He expressed Swift's belief that it would be easy for the government to conduct its own negotiations with the Marcoses without considering the compensation claims of the rights victims as a burden.

He added that after the 30 percent, or $174 million, had been deducted from the $580 million, it would be up to the government and the Marcoses to divide the rest of the $406 million.

''This means that the government and the Marcoses could easily come up with their own sharing scheme after the rights victims have collected their 30-percent share,'' Domingo said.

''Whether the sharing scheme is 75-25, 95-5, or 98-2 is entirely up to them to decide.''

Asked what the Marcoses could get out of the new proposal, Domingo said the rights victims were willing to drop the civil charges against the Marcos family.

''The Marcoses' compliance with the compensation claims is pursuant to the landmark decisions of the United States Ninth Circuit Court and the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ordering the Marcos estate to indemnify the victims who suffered during martial law,'' Domingo said.

The US court found the Marcos estate liable for the human rights violations and awarded the victims some $2.3 billion.

''The rights victims do not want the whole amount which has grown to $2.5 billion because of accrued interest,'' Domingo said. ''It's enough that the landmark decision is enforced.''

He stressed that his and Swift's efforts to complete separate negotiations with the Marcoses should not stop the government from pursuing the criminal and tax liabilities of the family, as embodied in the Dec. 9, 1998, ruling of the Supreme Court.

In the first place, he explained, one of the conditions imposed by the Swiss authorities for the Philippine government to gain access to the money was to first satisfy the claims of the rights victims.

''It means that the Estrada government cannot dip its hands into the Marcos deposit unless the rights victims are compensated first,'' Domingo pointed out.

With the rights victims out of the picture, he said, the government and the Marcoses could choose to take their ''sweet time'' to complete negotiations for a settlement.

But as it is, a controversy is growing around the $580 million supposedly transferred from Swiss banks and now held in an escrow account at the Philippine National Bank.

Earlier, former Senate President Jovito Salonga said that no actual transfer of the funds had taken place, and that the money was still in the name of six Marcos dummy corporations.

And as early as Sept. 8 last year, the Sandiganbayan issued a resolution ordering Solicitor General Ricardo Galvez to show proof that the money had indeed been deposited at the PNB.

The Sandiganbayan also said the money was being held in the name of 12, not six, Marcos ''foundations.''

Galvez has yet to respond to the court resolution.

Salonga's disclosure, along with his recommendation that President Estrada get the Swiss government or its agent to sign the escrow agreements involving the money -- in order to make these binding--had annoyed Mr. Estrada.

It came to a point that the President described Salonga as ''senile'' and ''out of his mind.''

In response, Salonga said Mr. Estrada was ''hopelessly ignorant.''

Salonga is the first chair of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, which was formed by the Aquino administration to go after the Marcoses' alleged ill-gotten wealth.

By Christine Herrera

Philippine Daily Inquirer, January 31, 1999