U.S. District Judge Manuel Real denied a motion to freeze the assets pending an appeal by Arelma Corp., a Panamanian financial company that originally held the $40 million.

Real ruled that the assets should go to start paying the 1995 judgment won by the 9,539 Filipinos in the 1995 case.

Jay Ziegler, an attorney for Arelma, said the company will likely appeal the ruling.

The $40 million has been held in an escrow account because of competing claims of ownership by the Marcos estate, the Philippine government and the human rights victims. It is separate from $658.2 million in frozen Swiss assets that the Philippine Supreme Court awarded to the Philippine government last year.

In 1995, a Honolulu jury awarded plaintiffs $2 billion after finding Marcos responsible for summary executions, disappearances and torture. The judgment has grown to about $3.7 billion with interest.

Marcos and his family fled to Hawai'i after he was toppled in a "people power" revolt in February 1986, ending his 20-year rule.