Imelda Marcos to support human rights compensation bill

MANILA, Philippines—Militant lawmakers might soon find themselves working on the bill on compensation for human rights victims with wife of the dictator they tag as human rights violator.

Newly elected Ilocos Norte Representative and former first lady Imelda Marcos said she is willing to support the passage of the human rights compensation bill, stressing that she is the "number one human rights victim."

"Whatever is good," she said when asked if she will back the bill if re-filed in the 15th Congress.

"Because I'm the number one major victim of human rights, I have not had my justice since 1986 but anyway I'm sure things will come out right, I'm very positive and I'm very excited about this because united, this country has so much potential," she told reporters.

Marcos was one of the neophyte lawmakers who attended the orientation given in the House of Representatives.
Effendi said his agency has 79 pistols: 25 stored its office, 22 carried by senior agency officers and 32 used by Jakarta Transportation Agency officers.

She replaced his son, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., who is now a senator.

Another member of the Marcos clan, former congresswoman Imee Marcos, is now Ilocos Norte governor.

The Marcoses were ousted in a people's uprising in 1986 ending Ferdinand Marcos’s 20 years of dictatorial rule.

The compensation bill, which has failed to pass in the last two congresses, will benefit the families of some 10,000 victims of involuntary disappearances, torture, murders, rape, and harassment during the Marcos years.

A law is needed to compensate the human rights victims because the sequestered ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses is set aside for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.

Militant lawmakers have pledged to re-file the bill in the 15th Congress.


(2010-07-08/INQUIRER.net )