Martial law victims get money from Monet sale

PAGADIAN CITY - American human rights lawyer Robert Swift is in the Philippines to give indemnification to victims of human rights violations during the martial law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos. Swift will oversee the distribution of proceeds from the sale of a Claude Monet painting to martial law victims. The first distribution location is June 9 in Pagadian City while the distribution in Manila is June 19 and 20. Each victim will get P50,000. The first release of settlement funds was in Zamboanga in 2011 or 25 years after a class suit was filed in behalf of almost 10,000 victims of martial law. Earlier, a former aide of former First Lady Imelda Marcos was convicted in November 2013 of conspiracy and tax fraud charges related to the sale or attempted sale of four museum-quality paintings acquired by Marcos during the two decades that her husband was president of the Philippines. The art disappeared around 1986, when Marcos was ousted in a popular uprising. He died three years later in Hawaii. Vilma Bautista, Imelda's former aide, sold Monet's "Le Bassin aux Nympheas" for $32 million to a London gallery. Imelda Marcos, 84, has been charged with civil and criminal crimes, but never been jailed despite evidence of massive wealth accumulated during her husband's 1965-1986 rule, most famously in the form of her huge collection of designer shoes. She is a congresswoman and has denied that her family's wealth was ill-gotten. With reports by Roxanne Arevalo, ABS-CBN News; and Reuters