A FORMER member of the House of Representatives on Sunday slammed House Speaker Prospero Nograles for reneging on his promise to hasten the resolution of the long-pending compensation bill that would allow the 10,000 human-rights victims of the Marcos regime to benefit from the P10-billion funds the government set aside for them.

The bill, if not passed in Congress, would not give the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) the authority to distribute the money to the victims.

“I was informed that Speaker Prospero Nograles refused to calendar the compensation bill last Monday or Tuesday. This is a complete turnaround from his promise during the 13th Congress, of which I’m a member, to hasten the passing of the bill once he has the way, meaning, he’s already the Speaker,” former party-list Rep. Loreta Ann Rosales of Akbayan told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview.

The funds were taken from the recovered ill-gotten wealth of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, which was intended to finance the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman said the funds are intact at the DBM.

Rosales, cofounder of Claimants 1081, said she is puzzled by the sudden “change of heart” by Nograles.

“It appears now that Nograles is following the same tricks that his ousted predecessor, Lakas Rep. Jose de Venecia [JDV] of Pangasinan, used before to delay the resolution of the bill. JDV will keep saying then that he could not calendar it because of persistent pressure from Malacañang, and we don’t know what kind of pressure was that because when I once talked with the President, she stressed it’s up to Congress to do its job,” she said.

The bill was passed in the bicameral conference committee in the 13th Congress.

Without hesitation, the Senate ratified the bill and then tossed it to Congress for final approval, but de Venecia did not act on it until the day he was ousted.

Rosales recalled Nograles had promised her the bill would be passed in six weeks once he was already “on top of the situation.”

“But look what he’s doing now. He refused to calendar it [bill]! This is a violation of the constitutional process,” she said.

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A FORMER member of the House of Representatives on Sunday slammed House Speaker Prospero Nograles for reneging on his promise to hasten the resolution of the long-pending compensation bill that would allow the 10,000 human-rights victims of the Marcos regime to benefit from the P10-billion funds the government set aside for them.

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