EDITORIAL
Marcos assets must help people, not regime
Finally, a portion of the billions of dollars in alleged ill-gotten gains that the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos amassed while in office will go to good use.
Or so we hope.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo says most of the $683 million recovered from Marcos' Swiss bank deposits will finance the government's land reform plan, which has been poorly funded since 1987.
The bulk of the recovered money is earmarked to help some 1.8 million landless farmers. And at least $150 million will be set aside for victims of human rights violations — including torture, kidnapping and summary executions — during Marcos' martial law rule. Both classes of recipients are more than deserving of compensation, considering their losses.
Marcos, who went into exile in Hawai'i after he was ousted in a "people power" revolt in 1986, died in 1989. His assets were stashed away in a Swiss bank account frozen in 1998. More than 9,000 Filipinos filed a class-action suit in a Hawai'i court in 1986, and were awarded $2 billion in compensation.
Naturally, many Filipinos worry whether the money will actually benefit the people. For example, the militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas has expressed concerns that the money will be used to compensate big landlords rather than small farmers.
And we can't fault their cynicism. Corruption at the top has long posed a challenge to democracy in the Philippines. In 2000, the World Bank estimated that corruption cost the nation $47 million a year, undermined development, hurt the poor, diminished the quality of public services and raised the price of goods and services.
Indeed, President Joseph Estrada, an avowed Marcos loyalist, was ousted in 2001 after being accused of amassing more than $64 million in ill-gotten wealth via kickbacks from illegal gambling operations, tobacco excise taxes and insider trading profits.
Though the new regime isn't directly responsible for past misdeeds, it nonetheless has significant amends to make to its people. The just distribution of Marcos' Swiss bank account assets is a good place to start.
