Source: ANN
No amount of money can bring back a lost son or erase memories of torture and detention, but a court ruling ordering the man behind these horrors to pay the victims provides a measure of comfort to the victims of martial law abuses under the late Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
"The pain is still with us and I share it with other Filipinos whose children or husband had suffered... We never forget," Cecilia Lagman, who lost her son Hermon during the Marcos regime, said Monday (February 28).
No monetary compensation will ever suffice, Lagman said at the programme where the first 12 of those who suffered from the human rights violations or their kin, received their US$1,000 checks from lawyers led by Robert Swift, who joined their legal battle for compensation from Marcos.
Hermon, a labor lawyer and human rights defender, has been missing for 34 years.
Each of the 7,526 members of a class action lawsuit brought against the Marcoses will get $1,000. The fund distribution was earlier approved by Judge Manuel Real of the US District Court of Hawaii.
The funds come from a $10-million settlement of a case against those who control the Texas and Colorado properties bought with Marcos money.
The distribution of the money will be done throughout the country in the next five weeks. The payment to the victims partly fulfills a $2-billion judgment against the Marcos estate handed down by a US federal court in 1995.
Hilda Narciso noted that no matter how big or how small the amount to be given to the victims, the money would not bring back missing detainees.
Narciso was a teacher when she was arrested during the martial law years. Her captors interrogated and tortured her, and later sexually abused her.
Victory
But Narciso said the compensation showed that those who had done wrong would have to account for their actions. She considered this development not just a personal victory.
"This is a victory not only for me but for all the Filipino people," she said, as she gave profuse thanks to the lawyers who had been with the victims throughout their fight.
Meinrado Paredes, now the executive judge of the Cebu Regional Trial Court, said the damage that the martial law victims suffered was "irreparable". But he welcomed the court decision ordering the monetary award.
"What's important is we got a historic decision that human rights violations were committed during the Marcos regime. And dictators and plunderers must pay the victims," Paredes said.
He added that what was also important was that a repressive regime was made to answer for its deeds.
Paredes recalled that he was preparing for the bar exams when he found himself behind bars during martial law. He used to write articles critical of the Marcos regime, when he was with the College Editors Guild of the Philippines. He later worked as a human rights lawyer.
Donation
Paredes intends to donate his check and future compensation from the Marcos estate to the Cebu city jail and to a group that advocates human rights and children's welfare.
Lutgardo Barbo, a lawyer who challenged the Marcos regime, said he was offering his compensation to his wife and children.
He recalled that he was newly married when he was arrested and that his wife was then pregnant. During his detention, he was not allowed to sleep or eat for 36 hours, an experience that had deprived him and many others of hope.
Movie and stage director Joel Lamangan, one of the 12 recipients of the check, said he was offering the money to those who have died, disappeared and lost their youth during martial law, and to those who cannot speak up and do not have the chance to speak up.
"This is a big victory in the fight for human rights, not just for the Philippines but for the whole world," Lamangan said.
Closure of sorts
Lamangan, who as a young activist was jailed in isolation for two years, said the compensation was a "closure of sorts" but still fell short of a desired apology from the Marcos family. The Marcos family has consistently denied any wrongdoing during the patriarch's rule.
"I was only 17, fresh out of high school. I was jailed and subjected to all kinds of torture you can imagine. There were many times I thought I was going to die," he said, showing off a deep scar on his head left by a rifle butt.
Other recipients
Other recipients of the checks were Antonio Lacaba, Beatriz de Vera, Edward Gerlock, Fe Mangahas, Nilo Olegario Sr. and Ruben Resus.
"The amount is small compared to our suffering, but this is a victory for the battle of human rights in the Philippines and it makes the Marcoses accountable for their evil deeds," said Olegario, a retired Air Force colonel.
Olegario's activist-son and namesake was arrested by Marcos agents in December 1985, two months before Marcos was sent into US exile.
Last conversation
An accountant by training, the younger Olegario had joined the democracy movement campaign while his father and other siblings migrated to the United States to seek a new life.
"In our last conversation over the telephone, my son said 'Dad, they are arresting us,'" Olegario, 81, recalled, fighting back tears as he showed a picture of his then 28-year-old son casually smiling into the camera.
"He was the favorite among my five children. We never heard from him again. We have not recovered his remains."
Maryknoll priest, poet
Edward Gerlock served as a Maryknoll priest in Tagum, Davao del Norte, and was working with the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) before martial law was declared. The FFF opposed the expansion of banana plantations in the province.
Gerlock was ordered deported by Marcos to the United States for his opposition to the dictatorship.
Antonio Lacaba is the brother of poet Emmanuel Lacaba. Eman was a campus poet who became an activist in the late 1960s. He helped draft and disseminate a manifesto titled "Down from the Hill," which encouraged Ateneans to involve themselves in the socio-political movement. He later went underground and was killed in Balaag, Davao del Norte in March 1976.
Mangahas was active with the faculty union at the University of the East when she found herself without a job shortly after martial law was declared. Not long after, in January 1973, she and husband Roger, who was with a writers' group, were arrested and detained. With an uncle in the army, Mangahas was just interrogated overnight and released, but her husband was detained for 19 months.
In 1974, Ruben Resus' son, A.S., was arrested and taken into military custody. He was tortured during interrogation and kept in detention without ever being charged. He disappeared in 1977. -- With reports from Eliza Victoria, Inquirer Research
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No amount of money can bring back a lost son or erase memories of torture and detention, but a court ruling ordering the man behind these horrors to pay the victims provides a measure of comfort to the victims of martial law abuses under the late Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
"The pain is still with us and I share it with other Filipinos whose children or husband had suffered... We never forget," Cecilia Lagman, who lost her son Hermon during the Marcos regime, said Monday (February 28).
No monetary compensation will ever suffice, Lagman said at the programme where the first 12 of those who suffered from the human rights violations or their kin, received their US$1,000 checks from lawyers led by Robert Swift, who joined their legal battle for compensation from Marcos.
Hermon, a labor lawyer and human rights defender, has been missing for 34 years.
Each of the 7,526 members of a class action lawsuit brought against the Marcoses will get $1,000. The fund distribution was earlier approved by Judge Manuel Real of the US District Court of Hawaii.
The funds come from a $10-million settlement of a case against those who control the Texas and Colorado properties bought with Marcos money.
The distribution of the money will be done throughout the country in the next five weeks. The payment to the victims partly fulfills a $2-billion judgment against the Marcos estate handed down by a US federal court in 1995.
Hilda Narciso noted that no matter how big or how small the amount to be given to the victims, the money would not bring back missing detainees.
Narciso was a teacher when she was arrested during the martial law years. Her captors interrogated and tortured her, and later sexually abused her.
Victory
But Narciso said the compensation showed that those who had done wrong would have to account for their actions. She considered this development not just a personal victory.
"This is a victory not only for me but for all the Filipino people," she said, as she gave profuse thanks to the lawyers who had been with the victims throughout their fight.
Meinrado Paredes, now the executive judge of the Cebu Regional Trial Court, said the damage that the martial law victims suffered was "irreparable". But he welcomed the court decision ordering the monetary award.
"What's important is we got a historic decision that human rights violations were committed during the Marcos regime. And dictators and plunderers must pay the victims," Paredes said.
He added that what was also important was that a repressive regime was made to answer for its deeds.
Paredes recalled that he was preparing for the bar exams when he found himself behind bars during martial law. He used to write articles critical of the Marcos regime, when he was with the College Editors Guild of the Philippines. He later worked as a human rights lawyer.
Donation
Paredes intends to donate his check and future compensation from the Marcos estate to the Cebu city jail and to a group that advocates human rights and children's welfare.
Lutgardo Barbo, a lawyer who challenged the Marcos regime, said he was offering his compensation to his wife and children.
He recalled that he was newly married when he was arrested and that his wife was then pregnant. During his detention, he was not allowed to sleep or eat for 36 hours, an experience that had deprived him and many others of hope.
Movie and stage director Joel Lamangan, one of the 12 recipients of the check, said he was offering the money to those who have died, disappeared and lost their youth during martial law, and to those who cannot speak up and do not have the chance to speak up.
"This is a big victory in the fight for human rights, not just for the Philippines but for the whole world," Lamangan said.
Closure of sorts
Lamangan, who as a young activist was jailed in isolation for two years, said the compensation was a "closure of sorts" but still fell short of a desired apology from the Marcos family. The Marcos family has consistently denied any wrongdoing during the patriarch's rule.
"I was only 17, fresh out of high school. I was jailed and subjected to all kinds of torture you can imagine. There were many times I thought I was going to die," he said, showing off a deep scar on his head left by a rifle butt.
Other recipients
Other recipients of the checks were Antonio Lacaba, Beatriz de Vera, Edward Gerlock, Fe Mangahas, Nilo Olegario Sr. and Ruben Resus.
"The amount is small compared to our suffering, but this is a victory for the battle of human rights in the Philippines and it makes the Marcoses accountable for their evil deeds," said Olegario, a retired Air Force colonel.
Olegario's activist-son and namesake was arrested by Marcos agents in December 1985, two months before Marcos was sent into US exile.
Last conversation
An accountant by training, the younger Olegario had joined the democracy movement campaign while his father and other siblings migrated to the United States to seek a new life.
"In our last conversation over the telephone, my son said 'Dad, they are arresting us,'" Olegario, 81, recalled, fighting back tears as he showed a picture of his then 28-year-old son casually smiling into the camera.
"He was the favorite among my five children. We never heard from him again. We have not recovered his remains."
Maryknoll priest, poet
Edward Gerlock served as a Maryknoll priest in Tagum, Davao del Norte, and was working with the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) before martial law was declared. The FFF opposed the expansion of banana plantations in the province.
Gerlock was ordered deported by Marcos to the United States for his opposition to the dictatorship.
Antonio Lacaba is the brother of poet Emmanuel Lacaba. Eman was a campus poet who became an activist in the late 1960s. He helped draft and disseminate a manifesto titled "Down from the Hill," which encouraged Ateneans to involve themselves in the socio-political movement. He later went underground and was killed in Balaag, Davao del Norte in March 1976.
Mangahas was active with the faculty union at the University of the East when she found herself without a job shortly after martial law was declared. Not long after, in January 1973, she and husband Roger, who was with a writers' group, were arrested and detained. With an uncle in the army, Mangahas was just interrogated overnight and released, but her husband was detained for 19 months.
In 1974, Ruben Resus' son, A.S., was arrested and taken into military custody. He was tortured during interrogation and kept in detention without ever being charged. He disappeared in 1977. -- With reports from Eliza Victoria, Inquirer Research
