Settlement in Jeopardy for Victims of Ex-Filipino Dictator

A tentative federal court settlement that would provide $150 million in compensation for human rights victims of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos showed signs of unraveling Monday, as the plaintiffs’ lawyer sought in vain to strike a paragraph from the agreement.

An angry U.S. District Judge Manuel Real refused to alter the settlement’s language, warning attorney Robert A. Swift that he could “wind up with zero” for his 9,539 Filipino clients.

Swift sought Real’s approval to delete a section in the settlement stating that Marcos’ widow, Imelda, and their children have “never been charged civilly or criminally with a human rights violation anywhere in the world.”

“That clause doesn’t mean anything to anybody,” Real shouted from the bench. “It doesn’t mean anything to Mrs. Marcos. It doesn’t mean anything to members of the class . . . let’s stop all this nonsense, pure nonsense.”

Real said it was up to Swift to decide whether to scuttle the deal.

“You do what you want to do and I’ll do what I have to do,” the judge added as he ended the hearing.

Outside the courtroom, Swift declined to say what his next move might be. He said he is under a gag order not to talk to the media about the case.

The suit was filed in the United States in 1986 because Marcos was living in Hawaii in exile. He died there in 1989. With his estate named as defendant, the case came to trial in 1995 and a jury awarded the plaintiffs $1.9 billion as compensation for human rights abuses.

Until the tentative settlement in February, there seemed little likelihood that Marcos’ alleged victims and their families would ever receive much of the jury’s money award.

Swift and his co-counsel, Sherry P. Broder of Honolulu, have so far been able to seize only about $1 million from the sale of a Marcos home and a Mercedes-Benz in Hawaii.

A big break came, however, when two Swiss banks agreed to turn over $475 million in Marcos-linked funds that had been deposited in the names of dummy foundations based in Lichtenstein. The money is now in an escrow account at the government-controlled Philippine National Bank.

Real has set a final settlement hearing April 29 in Honolulu. If the plaintiffs do not withdraw and the deal wins final approval, the Philippine government would release the $150 million for the settlement.

If they are compensated equally, each plaintiff would receive about $16,000.