Human rights victims consider it an insult that the 9-man Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board is headed by a retired police official, Ma. Rina Amacio, chairperson of Gabriela Women’s Party, said at a meeting yesterday with human rights victims and claimants against the estate of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

The meeting at the Bacolod City Government Center was held by the Committee on Human Rights of the Sangguniang Panlungsod headed by Councilor Archie Baribar with Fr. Brian Gore. It was attended by several Martial Law human rights victims covered by Republic Act No. 10368, or the “Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act.”

According to Supreme Court of the Philippines, in Dec. 10, 1997 the Swiss Federal Supreme Court transferred the funds to the government of the Republic of the Philippines in the amount of P10 billion plus accrued interest which will be used as a principal source fund for the implementation of the R.A 10368.

Amacio said the board should be headed by someone neutral, like one coming from the church.

Baribar, one of the claimants, said the chairman is a former member of the Philippine National Police and this is supposed to be a Human Rights Violations Victims’ Claims Board.

He said the claimants have reason to question the composition of the board formed by President Benigno Aquino lll since it is headed by a former female general of the PNP (retired Chief Supt. Lina Sarmiento), which they believe is part of those who had violated human right in the past.

Baribar said there was a move on the floor to create a temporary coordinating body to process claimants not included among the P10,000 plaintiffs in the Robert Swift case.

Gore, one of the “Negros Nine” who was also arrested and imprisoned during Martial Law, said the victims should unite to pursue their quest for justice since Malacañang has created a Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board for all the victims.

He hopes the money will reach the people who really deserve it.

Baribar said there are about 700 human rights victims in Negros based on their latest count. Now those who have not claimed any compensation can do so, and more claimants may surface.

The human rights compensation will come from the P10 billion Marcos assets as decided by the Federal Court, he said.

Amaco said this is the first time that human rights victims have been reunited on the day the EDSA Revolution is being commemorated.

Amacio said the younger generation is not aware of Martial Law because it is not incorporated in the curriculum of the Dep Ed.

Meanwhile, Nida Cuenca-Geanga, one of the human rights victims, recalled that as an activist, she was apprehended in 1974 when she was 19 years old and again in 1975 in Silay when she was about to join her husband in the mountains.

She said her husband Rufino, was the commanding officer of the New People’s Army in the 1980’s until he was apprehended by government troops.

She said she was jailed at the old Philippine Constabulary Headquarters in Camingawan for six months until they escaped together with eight others activists. She was again arrested in 1983 in Kabankalan and jailed for three months at the Police Regional Office in Camp Delgado, Iloilo until she was released legally with the help of Baribar.*CGS

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