Press Statement

November 4, 2011

We condemn the fake Marcos claimants’ scam that has sought to defraud legitimate human rights claimants of the compensation they rightly deserve. It is indeed tragic that these scams take place while many other Marcos victims were taken out of the list and were not able to get compensation.

The Commission on Human Rights and lawyer Rod Domingo should explain how in the first place the arrested suspects posing as fake Marcos claimants were able to acquire authentic checks as well as the master list of all Marcos claimants. It is the CHR and Domingo who are facilitating the distribution of the checks and who have access to the master list.

Domingo in particular should explain his association with and knowledge of the two principal suspects Edward and Marlene Santiago. Domingo’s statements raise more questions than answers.

The incident further erodes the credibility of the CHR, Domingo and the ongoing process of compensating Marcos human rights victims. The fake claimants scam comes in the wake of the delisting of more than 2,000 legitimate Marcos claimants. ###