From fugitives to millionaires.
Jose Ma. Sison, founder and longtime leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines and wife Julie de Lima, will receive a windfall of P1.2 million, as reparation from the government as human rights victim during the martial law years.
Sison said he was told that he and his wife will receive P1.2 million each for their detention and torture by government agents under the then late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
"The remittance has been made to the bank account of Julie. We are instant peso millionaires. She got P1.2 [million] and I got P1.2 [million]," the 79-year-old Sison said.
Sison has been in exile in The Netherlands since 1987.
"Whatever is the amount, the important thing is that the Philippine government accepted that violations of human rights occurred," he added.
Reparation is guaranteed under a landmark law in 2013 which “heroism and sacrifices" of human rights victims under Marcos.
But according to Lina Sarmiento, head of the Human Rights Victims' Claims Board, only 14 percent of the total 75,749 claimants will receive reparation because the others failed to prove that they were victims of gross human rights violations.
The money for martial law victims came from the P10-billion Swiss bank deposits recovered from the Marcoses. Interest from the said amount will be used to put up a museum.
The Presidential Commission on Good Government has recovered P170 billion or about $3.4 billion in ill-gotten wealth including jewelry, art, and other assets from the Marcos family.
Last week, the House of Representatives approved a bill seeking to abolish PCGG and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, transferring these agencies' functions and powers to the Office of the Solicitor General, a decision that Sison described as ‘bad.’
"I think that's a bad decision… If the function of PCGG is transferred to a pro-Marcos loyalist like [Solicitor General Jose] Calida, you have a problem there."
