Rod Domingo Jr., local co-counsel for the abused, said the lawyers would spend nearly P500,000 to mail ''class notices'' today to each of the 9,539 victims, most of whom live in isolated areas accessible only ''by crossing rivers or mountains.''

He expressed concern that the documents would not reach the claimants in time to meet the deadline even as Makati Rep. Joker Arroyo joined the fray of lawmakers fiercely opposed to the provisional deal.

Arroyo said that presidential approval of the agreement would be tantamount to making a ''policy statement'' exonerating the Marcoses of rights violations.

The tripartite agreement was signed by representatives of the government, the Marcoses, and the human rights claimants. It awaits final approval from several parties.

Arroyo cautioned the President against becoming a party to a ''dubious and offensive'' provision allegedly inserted by the Marcoses into the text of the agreement.

The clause reportedly provides that the Marcoses were ''never charged with human rights violations anywhere in the world, including in the Philippines,'' but if they were, ''they are fully released by this paragraph.''

In a statement, however, Imelda Marcos ''flatly denied'' that the document contained the controversial clause, adding that the settlement was ''landmark'' and ''a first.''

Her statement said that the Commission on Human Rights ''cleared the Marcoses of any human rights violations'' on March 4, 1997 in a certification signed by Chair Aurora Navarette-Recina.

Ms Marcos, then a congresswoman, had requested the certification ''for whatever legal purpose it may serve,'' according to the press release.

In the mail

Domingo said that, apart from copies of the agreement, each plaintiff should receive a claim form detailing the crime or crimes he or she suffered under the dictator, including specifics about arrests, torture or imprisonment.

The class notices also ask the claimants if they approve of the deal, and, if not, which provisions they oppose.

Domingo said the plaintiffs should then mail the completed forms directly to the US district court of Judge Manuel Real in Honolulu not later than March 30, using addressed and stamped envelopes accompanying the forms.

Selda, a detainees' group representing many of the plaintiffs, promised to help locate them.

Secretary General Marie Hilao-Enriquez said her group would also tap its provincial representatives and chapter officers to help the victims, most of whom are impoverished, fill out the forms.

Enriquez said her group would make sure that claimants fully understood the English of the legal documents. ''We will translate the documents into dialects or languages such as Waray, Cebuano, Ilonggo, Bicolano, Ilocano, etc.,'' she said.

'Horror of horrors'

''The impact of the settlement is that the Marcoses could trumpet to the whole world that they have been cleared of human rights violations--by the Philippine government, no less,'' Arroyo told the Inquirer in an interview.

Mr. Estrada has taken credit for the $150-million compensation figure, saying that he convinced the Marcoses to agree to the amount.

The President still has to approve the settlement, which entails transferring the dollars from a $590-million Marcos escrow account at the Philippine National Bank to a bank designated by Real.

''Horror of horrors, the government is making a policy statement not on a decision rendered by a Philippine court, but on a money case with an all-American cast--an agreement entered into by American lawyers that will be approved and supervised by an American judge,'' he said.

American Robert Swift is the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, while James Linn and John Bartko represent the Marcoses. Judge Real provisionally approved the deal on Feb. 24.

'Sharing the loot'

The late dictator was sued in a US court because he was residing in Honolulu when the plaintiffs filed their class suit against him.

The Philippine government became involved in the suit because it claimed to be the rightful owner of all of the assets of the Marcos estate.

But Arroyo accused the government of being ''a stranger to the suit'' and signing the settlement only ''because it wants to partake of the elusive Marcos monies.''

He reminded the government that the Marcoses were primary targets of the 1986 People Power Revolt. ''Compromise on the issue and we render the Edsa popular uprising meaningless,'' he said.

His colleague, Rep. Ernesto Herrera, issued still another statement to point out that ''by entering into an agreement with criminals, it would be like saying, 'Look, we know that you have stolen the money, now let us share the loot.'''

Conspiracy theory

Romeo Capulong, another lawyer for the plaintiffs, accused Mr. Estrada and Swift of ''conspiring to absolve the Marcoses of human rights violations.''

Capulong also charged Swift, Domingo and Sen. Rene Saguisag (who represented a victim's heirs in a separate suit) of trying to ''mislead the victims and the Filipino people'' by saying that paragraph 5.2 was a last-minute insertion made by the Marcos lawyers.

''Domingo and Saguisag even took the hypocritical posture of denouncing this paragraph,'' charged Capulong, Selda's general counsel.

He said in a statement that the clause was ''contrived'' by the Marcoses, the government and Swift ''to sneak in more obnoxious and unacceptable provisions'' such as the dropping of ill-gotten wealth charges, immunity from suit, and a compromise deal favoring the Marcoses.