<\/p>\n
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To compensate victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime,<\/span><\/p>\n Migrante Sydney Neighbourhood, a Filipino non-profit organisation in the<\/span><\/p>\n country, is set to launch Project Sanctuary on Saturday, October 19, 11:00 am<\/span><\/p>\n – 12:30 pm, at the ground floor, Search Foundation, 128 Chalmers St. Surry<\/span><\/p>\n Hills, Sydney.<\/span><\/p>\n Ferdinand Marcos ruled the Philippines as President from 1966 to 1986,<\/span><\/p>\n fourteen years of which was under martial law. Martial law was paper lifted in<\/span><\/p>\n 1981. According to one human rights group, nearly 100,000 were arrested,<\/span><\/p>\n tortured, imprisoned or extrajudicially killed during martial law years 1972-<\/span><\/p>\n 1981.<\/span><\/p>\n Project Sanctuary will ensure that Filipino migrants in Australia are guided<\/span><\/p>\n and well informed on their allotted compensation from the P10B pesos (A$24<\/span><\/p>\n million) offered by the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act<\/span><\/p>\n of 2013, which has been enacted for a year now and signed on February 25<\/span><\/p>\n this year by Aquino III.<\/span><\/p>\n The group is asking President Benigno Aquino III to immediately constitute<\/span><\/p>\n the Board which will manage the claims. Pres. Aquino III\u2019s father, Senator<\/span><\/p>\n Benigno Aquino Jr., himself was slain in November 1983 at the then Manila<\/span><\/p>\n International Airport as he was returning from exile in the US. The family<\/span><\/p>\n strongly points culpability on the then Marcos government.<\/span><\/p>\n According to Migrante Sydney Neighbourhood spokesperson Maria Elena<\/span><\/p>\n Ang, herself a victim of torture during the Martial Law in the Philippines, the<\/span><\/p>\n group will offer legal and para-legal and other benefits as psychological and<\/span><\/p>\n social assistance. \u201cIt is our fervent desire to help these martial law victims.<\/span><\/p>\n Most of them are already suffering from old age and debility from their martial<\/span><\/p>\n law suffering. Their health conditions were worsened by the emotional and<\/span><\/p>\n physical cruelty they experienced. It is best that we help them get their claims<\/span><\/p>\n not so much for the monetary benefit, as a recognition that crimes against<\/span><\/p>\n humanity and gross human rights violations of a dictatorship anywhere will not<\/span><\/p>\n go unpunished and forgotten,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n A similar class action suit on behalf of about 10,000 martial law victims has<\/span><\/p>\n been pursued since 1986 and lodged in the Hawaii District Court where<\/span><\/p>\n Marcos was in exile then. A US lawyers\u2019 group invoked a 1789 US tort and<\/span><\/p>\n eventually was awarded US$2.9 billion. The group 27 years after is still trying<\/span><\/p>\n to uncover the hidden Marcos estate.<\/span><\/p>\n Migrante Sydney Neighbourhood will assist qualified victims in making<\/span><\/p>\n applications for compensation aligned with the procedures set by the as-yetto-<\/span><\/p>\n be-formed Human Rights Victims\u2019 Claims Board in the Philippines.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To compensate victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime, Migrante Sydney Neighbourhood, a Filipino non-profit organisation in the country, is set to launch Project Sanctuary on Saturday, October 19, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm, at the ground floor, Search Foundation, 128 Chalmers St. Surry Hills, Sydney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}