VICTIMS of human-rights violations during the martial law years on Wednesday demanded an explanation as to why their names were delisted as members in the class-action suit against former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his family.

Fr. Dionito Cabillas, secretary-general of the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda), said Rod Domingo, the Filipino legal counsel collaborating with court-appointed lawyer Robert Swift, should explain the basis for removing some 2,000 names from the list.

Cabillas said the victims and their families, many of them members of Selda, approached their office in the past months after the US court decision on the distribution of the fund from the settlement agreement with the Camposes, who are known cronies of the Marcoses.

He said Swift has said through his statements in the media that only about 7,526 victims will be compensated from the settlement agreement because some have not responded to the court’s second notice.

“They went through the rigors of filing their claims with the court in the early 1990s, despite their anguish in recounting their experiences of torture and of their family members being victims of summary executions and enforced disappearances during martial law. Selda was among the organizations which assisted the victims in filing their claims, and many of them believe that they were among the 9,539 class members,” said Cabillas.

He added that many of the delisted victims have transferred residence and, thus were unable to receive the second notice from the court.

“The bases of the delisting were among the questions we raised with Atty. Swift and the US court because the victims and their families need clarification and concrete answers. Many of them are now old and sickly, and measures to render justice through indemnification should be ensured,” he said.

Earlier, Swift said the martial-law victims will receive some compensation amounting to $1,000 for their suffering, with the amount being paid out starting March 1 after the January decision of Honolulu Judge Manuel Real approving the distribution of $7.5 million to settle a class-action suit filed in 1986 by rights-abuse victims of the Marcos dictatorship.

According to Swift, the litigation to collect on the 1995 $2.1-billion judgment continues, so there could be additional distributions in the future.