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Justice is sure to elude the thousands of victims of martial law if no opposition is posed to the schemes of the Arroyo regime and the Marcos-Akbayan collusion in Congress. The Samahan ng mga ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA), an organization of former political prisoners, has all the right to strongly assail Loretta Ann Rosales of the Akbayan party and the Congressional Committee on Civil, Political and Human Rights that she leads for pushing House Bill 3315. Through this bill, Rosales changed the definition of "martial law victim" to purposely disqualify the majority of persons on the list of those who deserve to be compensated. Rosales' proposition is anti-human rights and does not represent the interests of martial law victims, said SELDA secretary general Marie Hilao-Enriquez. If Rosales had her way, only those who were victimized while "peacefully upholding their civil and political rights" should be compensated. This would exclude outright any victim who joined the armed struggle or waged any other form of resistance that could be construed as "not peaceful" during the dictatorship. Rosales also wants to form an "independent board" to determine compensation to the victims. Her bill definitely disregards close to 10,000 martial law victims led by SELDA who won a class action suit in a US Federal Court in Hawaii in 1993 that awarded $1.2 billion to victims of torture, murder and arrest for which the dictator Ferdinand Marcos was responsible. Rosales ignores and violates the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), particularly, Section III, Article 5 which states that, "the two parties respect and support the rights of victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime with consideration to the final judgment of the US Federal Court System in the case against Marcos�" Rosales' scheme will again subject the victims to the long and tedious process of providing affidavits and documents to prove the violations that they had suffered under martial law. Worse, Rosales wants Malaca�ang to appoint three of the five members of her "independent board." A retired justice of the Supreme Court would lead it, with the head of the Commission on Human Rights and the Secretary of Justice as automatic appointees. This is adding insult to injury, as the Arroyo regime has already been jockeying to put its hands on the Marcos' ill-gotten wealth instead of compensating the victims. The martial law victims are angered no end over Rosales' proposal. The Marcoses, however, are elated because this would likely reduce several times the amount they would have to pay. Hopes grow dim that justice will be dispensed and indemnification given to the victims of torture, murder, disappearance and other human rights violations during martial law. With the way things are and the steps already taken by government on the victims' cases, the struggle being waged by the victims and their relatives is a complex one that would have to hurdle many obstacles before justice can be realized. 
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