For broadcast journalist Ces Drilon, presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos must first “acknowledge” what his father have done when the latter ruled the country for more than a decade.
Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is among those running for president in the 2022 elections after he failed to get the vice-presidential seat in 2016.
His father, late president Ferdinand Marcos, had placed the country under martial rule which lasted for almost half of his presidency.
“We aren’t asking BBM to pay for the sins of his father but to acknowledge them!” Drilon tweeted on Tuesday, referring to Marcos Jr’s initials.
“For how can you run on a platform pretending FM was the greatest president this country ever had when up to now my sons (and) your children are paying the interest on his behest loans to cronies!” she added, referring to Marcos Sr’s initials.
Her tweet has gained more than 4,000 likes and almost 1,000 retweets as of this writing.
Drilon expounded her post in another tweet where she pointed out the fate of other young people under Marcos Sr. and the effects of his presidency.
“While other families never had the joy of holding their grandchildren and seeing them grow because their offspring gave their lives fighting the Marcos dictatorship. While my mother’s grandchildren are still paying off the interest on loans racked up during the Marcos regime,” she tweeted.
It has earned 2,000 likes and more than 300 retweets so far.
Earlier this month, Marcos Jr. was asked if he would issue an apology over the human rights abuses and other crimes committed during his father’s reign.
The two-decade rule of the patriarch saw thousands imprisoned, tortured, abducted and killed—a fact recognized by a Hawaii court in 1992 and affirmed by the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1995 and the Supreme Court in 2003.
The Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act also recognize that there “were victims of summary execution, torture, enforced or involuntary disappearance and other gross human rights violations” under the Marcos regime.
In an interview with CNN Philippines’ “The Source,” Marcos Jr. said, “I can only apologize for myself, and I am willing to do that if I have done something wrong and if that neglect or that wrongdoing has been damaging to somebody.”
He argued that apologies would not be enough for some groups.
“No matter what apologies you give, it won’t be enough. It’s not been enough because the political forces opposing my father, let us remember, his government fell. They won. That side of the political aisle has been dominant since 1986,” Marcos’ son said, referring to the People Power Revolution and the Liberal Party which reemerged as a major political party after Marcos Sr’s oust.
The ruling party is now PPD-LABAN or Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan.
Last month, the Sandiganbayan ordered Royal Traders Holding Co. to pay the government the value of peso- and dollar-denominated bank certificates totaling P96 million and $5.435 million which form part of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth.
The decision reads:
“When the late president Ferdinand Marcos and his family fled the Philippines to escape the wrath of the enraged people at the height of the February 1986 People Power Revolution, he and his entourage arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, bringing numerous crates of boxes, suitcases and envelopes containing jewelry, Philippine and US currencies, certificates of time deposits, documents and bearer certificates and all such properties constituting ill-gotten wealth which were subsequently claimed by the new Philippine government before the US Customs Service.”
