Wednesday, 20 January 2010
The Manila Times.net
BY FRANCIS EARL A. CUETO Reporter
THE New York State Supreme Court junked the petition of the Philippine National Bank (PNB) for a new trial to determine ownership of the $35 million deposit with Merrill Lynch under the account of the Marcos family.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos also ordered Merrill Lynch to deposit the money with the court.
Claimants 1081 Chairperson Etta Rosales said that they received a letter from their American lawyer Robert Swift detailing of the good news, to which the New York Court has recognized that the human rights victims “are first in line to execute on the money.”
The same letter quoted the ruling of the New York State, which said that the petition of the Philippine government and the PNB were junked.
“Efforts by the Republic to delay the proceeding have been rebuffed by the New York Court,” the statement said.
PNB earlier filed an appeal on the decision of the New York State Supreme Court to hear the claim of Marcos human rights victims to the Arelma account in Merrill Lynch.
Rosales said that there are ongoing hearings but there is no date for a final hearing.
“If the human rights victims are successful, Atty. Swift will expedite a distribution of compensation to the victims,” she said.
Rosales lamented that such decision is important, considering the fact that the Philippine Congress has not yet passed the Human Rights Compensation bill.
“We must recall that back in April 2008 when the US Federal Supreme Court decided against giving the human rights claimants due course to the judgment we had won back in 1995, awarding us $2.2 billion, the Philippine Republic told the US High Court that the Republic was accountable to the human rights claimants in accordance with Article XIII of the Constitution. It boasted of a pending human rights compensation bill [which I had authored way back in 1998] in Congress which was going to be passed in favor of the Marcos victims,” Rosales said.
She added that since two years ago, the House bill has not even passed second reading.
“We had it passed the bicameral conference committee back in 2007 during my last stint in Congress but the House leadership refused to ratify the Committee Report even though the Senate had already ratified the Report,” she said.
“The 14th Congress is almost over and there is no move in the House to fast track passage of the Human Rights Compensation bill. The only hope therefore for justice to the Marcos victims is to rely on the fair judgment and ruling of the US State Supreme Court, it appears,” Rosales added.
The Philippine government in 2008 successfully used the sovereignty doctrine to convince the US Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision awarding the $35 million to the human rights victims of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Sovereign immunity refers to the legal doctrine that bars legal proceedings against a government without its consent.
The US High Court ruled that when a country asserts a claim to property in the US, and that claim is not frivolous, the dismissal of civil cases involving that property is appropriate when the country decides to assert its sovereign immunity and refuses to join in the proceedings.
But last month Ramos ruled that the claim of the 10,000 human rights victims to the Arelma account should again be heard in court.
He said the US High Court ruling was issued in a different context and, while it was “informative,” the decision was “not binding on New York courts.”
The $35-million Arelma account grew from $2 million that was first deposited with Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. in New York in 1972.
Arelma Inc. is a Panamanian corporation believed to have been one of the dummy firms used by Marcos to hide ill-gotten gains.
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Posted on January 20, 2010
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