{"id":209366,"date":"2019-04-10T22:57:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T02:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=209366"},"modified":"2019-04-10T22:57:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T02:57:17","slug":"ph-govt-to-decide-on-distribution-of-13-75-m-to-martial-law-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/10\/ph-govt-to-decide-on-distribution-of-13-75-m-to-martial-law-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"PH gov\u2019t to decide on distribution of $13.75-M to martial law victims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: 1986 rally against the Marcos Dictatorship in which protesters hold up images of Escalante Massacre victims (Photo By Malacanang Palace Presidential Museum and Library, Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday said it is the Philippine government that will decide on the distribution of settlement proceeds to some 9,000 human rights victims during martial law under former President Ferdinand Marcos.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo explained this after New York district court Judge Katherine Polk Failla reportedly ordered the transfer of USD13.75 million (some PHP715 million) proceeds from ill-gotten wealth assets of the Marcos family.<\/p>\n

“It is the Philippines that will decide — Philippine government,” Panelo said in a Palace press briefing.<\/p>\n

When asked if the Philippine government can defy the US court\u2019s directive, Panelo replied: \u201cIn the first place, do they have jurisdiction over us?\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelo said the Palace leaves the New York court\u2019s order to Solicitor General Jose Calida.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will leave that to the Solicitor General because he is in charge of that,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

The Presidential Spokesperson said he will also clarify with Calida why he is blocking some of the compensation.<\/p>\n

“I will have to ask him his reasoning for the oppositional blocking,” he said.<\/p>\n

Panelo said he cannot speculate \u201ceven in principle\u201d whether the martial law victims should receive the PHP715 million sourced from settlement proceeds of paintings seized from Vilma Bautista, an aide of former First Lady Imelda Marcos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to know the \u2018whys\u2019 and the \u2018wherefores\u2019 of SolGen,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) earlier said the distribution is “grossly disadvantageous to the government and not in accord with existing Philippine laws and jurisprudence.”<\/p>\n

The victims’ lawyers said the US court directed the transfer of settlements amounting to USD1,500 (around PHP78,000) to each of the victims, collectively known as Claimants 1081, in a class action lawsuit they filed against the Marcoses in Hawaii in 1995.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday said it is the Philippine government that will decide on the distribution of settlement proceeds to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":209368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209371,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209366\/revisions\/209371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}