The Senate passed on February 1 on third and final reading a bill
seeking to extend the life of the Human Rights Victims Claims Board (HRVCB) for
two more years so it could process all the claims of human rights victims
during the martial law.
Senate Bill No. 3153, sponsored by
Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, seeks to amend Section 29 of Republic Act
10368, also known as the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition
(HRVCB) Act of 2013.
The measure was passed with 14
affirmative votes, no negative vote and one abstention from Senate Minority
Leader Juan Ponce Enrile.
According to Mr. Pimentel, the HRVCB
was created in February 25, 2013 to provide reparation for the human rights
victims during the martial law. Under Section 29 of the law, the Board was
given a period of two years from the promulgation of its implementing rules and
regulations or from May 12, 2014 to May 12, 2016 to complete its
work.
However, he said, while the number
of claimants was estimated at only 20,000, the board actually received 75,730
applications for the reparation and/or recognition of human rights victims.
He said the board would need two
more years to process all the applications it received since 2014.
“As of November 30, 2015, the Board
had deliberated on about 11,071 or about 14.61 percent of the claims or
applications it has received. It would be impossible for the Board to complete
the deliberation of the remaining 64,659 applications by May 12, 2016,”
Mr. Pimentel explained.
He said it would still not be
possible to settle all the remaining claims, with nine members, handling 7,184
resolutions each.
“Each of the claims needs to be
thoroughly deliberated upon in order to judiciously resolve the legitimate
claims and to investigate and dispose of the fraudulent ones,” Mr. Pimentel
said.
Since the Board received about 378
percent more applications than what was projected by Congress, it is only fair
that we also extend the life of the Board to enable the HRVCB to fulfill its
mandate of recognizing the victims and making reparations for human rights
violations during the Marcos regime, Pimentel added. (Yvonne Almirañez)
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