Makati judge stops awarding of $2.26 B in damages to martial law victims

Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Sunday lauded the decision of a Makati Regional Trial Court trashing the petition to enforce the 18-year-old judgment of the United States District Court in Hawaii that awarded compensatory and exemplary damages to human rights victims during martial law.

In a statement issue on Sunday, the son and namesake of the former dictator said that their family felt vindicated by the decision.

“We feel vindicated because the judge (Pascua) recognized the arguments that we have been making for many years now,” Marcos said, referring to the 11-page decision dated June 25, 2013 penned by Judge Bonifacio S. Pascua of National Capital Judicial Region, Branch 56 of Makati City, dismissing the petition thus: “The final judgment in the case MDL No. 840 against the estate of the late Ferdinand R. Marcos et. al. is not conclusive yet, but presumptive evidence of a right of the petitioners against the Marcos estate.”

Marcos said the petition stemmed from a verdict on February 3, 1995 by the US District Court awarding plaintiffs Priscila C Mijares et. al. $2,260,000,000 as compensatory and exemplary damages after they won in the Class Action MDL 840. On May 21, 1997, the plaintiffs filed a petition for enforcement of the foreign judgment here in the Philippines.

“In his decision, Pascua said the plaintiffs have not presented any new evidence and that they anchored their cause of action in Hawaii upon the Torture of Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which was signed by President George H. W. Bush on March 12, 1992,” Marcos said in the statement.

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