$10M settlement reached for Marcos' victims

[September 24, 2010]  HONOLULU (AP) -- Lawyers for Philippine victims of human-rights abuses under late dictator Ferdinand Marcos say they've reached a $10 million settlement for more than 9,500 people.

Attorney Sherry Broder said in a statement Thursday the money will go to people who were tortured, summarily executed or disappeared during the Marcos regime or their families.

A Honolulu jury in U.S. District Court in 1995 awarded the victims nearly $2 billion in a judgment against the Marcos estate.

But the U.S. Supreme Court in 1998 overturned rulings giving the victims the right to money stashed by Marcos in the United States.

Broder says the settlement marks "a tremendous human rights victory" that finally enables money to be distributed to a large group of victims.

[Associated Press]

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