Marcos victims in Butuan start getting cash from sale of Marcos paintings

The American lawyer of victims of human rights violations under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos has started to distribute compensation checks in Butuan City.

According to Sandra Aguinaldo's report on "State of the Nation with Jessica Soho", Robert Swift gave the checks to claimants at the Commission on Human Rights office in the city.

Each victim is entitled to P77,500 or $1,500 after the sale of four paintings netted $13.75 millions.

A US court had ruled that the artworks were part of Marcoses' ill-gotten wealth.

Some 9,000 rights victims who filed a class suit in the US against the Marcoses in 1995 are entitled to compensation from the sale of the paintings.

However, Swift said only 6,600 claimants had coordinated with him.

"The case is historic and has achieved landmark decision about human rights," Swift said.

In an earlier report, Claimants 1081 executive director Zeny Mique said the group will help facilitate the distribution.

"Venues have been rented in 16 cities and staff recruited to assist in each location. Judging from the many e-mails and personal visits I receive, Class members are excited to receive compensation for the abuses committed during the Marcos regime," Mique had said.

In 1995, a jury in Hawaii awarded the Class almost $2 billion, according to an earlier report.

The Class members received compensation in 2011 and 2014 from collections on the judgments of Marcos property found in the United States.

Other monetary reparations awarded to Class members are still in the process of being fully distributed. —

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has so far recovered P172.66 billion worth of ill-gotten wealth from the Marcoses and cronies of the former president who died in exile in Hawaii in 1989.—NB, GMA News