Villar: Human Rights victims under Marcos regime to be compensated soon

Senate Bill No. 1745 approved on third reading

By OSV / PNS
September 7, 2006

MANILA, Philippines  – Voting 13-0, the Senate approved on third reading on Monday night (September 4), Senate Bill (SB) No. 1745 under Committee Report No. 4, or ‘an act providing for compensation to the victims of human rights violations during the regime of former President Ferdinand Marcos, documentation of said violations, appropriating funds therefore and for other purposes’.

Under SB 1745 or the ‘Human Rights Victims Compensation Act’, compensation will be extended to the victims of human rights violations committed during the regime of former President Marcos covering the period of September 21, 1972 to February 25, 1986.

Human rights violations can be any of the following: warrant-less search, arrest or detention during the declaration of Martial Law; physical injury, torture or killing or violation of other human rights including the freedom of speech, assembly or organization;  involuntary exile of a person from the country; unjust or illegal takeover of a business, confiscation of property or deprivation of livelihood of a person; involuntary disappearances; stealing or exploiting of children; sexual offenses against detainees; violation of the rights of the freedom of the press; violation of the rights of labor by preventing and dispersing peaceable strikes; and other violation similar to the above including those recognized by international law.

“Senate Bill 1745, and its equivalent House Bill, had been certified as urgent by the President. So, we acted on it once and for all. Bicameral discussions on the disagreeing provisions of the measure will follow shortly,” says Villar, President of the Nacionalista Party.