Opposition hits Imee Marcos over ‘move on’ remark

FILE: Governor Imee Marcos attended the National Information and Communications Technology Summit 2018 with President Rodrigo Duterte at the SMX Convention Center, Lanang, Davao City last June 22, 2018. (Photo: Imee Marcos/Facebook)

Ilocos Norte Governor Maria Imelda Josefa “Imee” Marcos drew the ire of several members of the opposition after she said the country should “move on” from the martial law declared by her father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, in 1972.

In a statement, opposition senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party (LP), said if the Marcoses want the nation to move on from the abuses and atrocities committed under martial law, they should “apologize and express remorse” first.

“How can those who were unjustly detained, tortured, and murdered move on when there is not remorse, not any act of atonement, not acceptance and recognition of wrongdoing on their part?” Pangilinan asked.

“How can the Filipino people move on when the Marcos family continue to deny the billions of dollars in unexplained wealth that ran our economy to the ground and earned the late dictator the title world’s greatest thief?” he added.

Pangilinan also urged the Marcos family to do what the Japanese emperor did in his state visit to the Philippines in 2016, where he expressed “deep remorse” for the atrocities done by the Japanese Imperial Army in the country during World War II.

He added that the Marcoses should also “return what they plundered to the country.”

“The Marcos family should stop using this same unexplained wealth to lie and rewrite history. When these happen, then we can all talk about and consider moving on,” Pangilinan stressed.

For Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, it is easy to say “move on” but it is hard to do, especially to those who died during the Marcos administration.

“Sinaktan ka na’t ninakawan, sasabihan ka pang mag-move on (You were hurt and robbed, then they will tell you to move on),” Aquino said.

“Mahirap maka-get over ‘pag walang closure, lalo na pag pinamumukha sa publiko na walang kasalanan ang salarin. Klaro naman sa kasaysayan kung sino ang nagnakaw, nag-torture at pumatay (It is hard to get over it unless there is closure, especially if they show to the public that perpetrators did not commit any wrongdoing. It is clear in history who is the thief, torturer, and killer),” he added.

In a report by Cebu Daily News, the late strongman’s daughter in a news conference on Tuesday, August 22, said, “The millennials have moved on, and I think people at my age should also move on as well.”

However, this remark did not also go well with some youth groups.

“She (Imee Marcos) seems to have forgotten how the youth mobilized against the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, and how different youth organizations are involved in making people remember the many atrocities that happened during martial rule and how it is still affecting our lives,” Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) said.

The millennials, it said, may not have been alive during Marcos’s regime, but policies passed during that time — like Education Act of 1982 — still affect Filipino youths today.

It added that the foreign debt incurred in the Marcos administration that this generation and the following generations will have to pay also “also continue to affect how inaccessible basic social services are to ordinary Filipino people.”

“There is no moving on until justice has been served. There is also no moving on in that we will never forget the damage martial law has done. She has no right, no claim what our stand is on the issue. Not in our name, Imee Marcos.,” SPARK stressed.

Meanwhile, College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) said it “will never forget” what happened in the Philippines when Marcos placed it under martial law.

The CEGP said it continuously reminded the Marcoses of martyrs like Liliosa Hilao, Lorena Baros, and Eman Lacaba who offered their lives in fighting for freedom and democracy under the late President’s ‘murderous’ regime.

“As CEGP marks its 87th year of existence, the Guild would like to remind Imee that the Guild has played a crucial role in overthrowing her father. Under dictator wannabe [President Rodrigo] Duterte, we will not hesitate to rally hundreds of thousands of students and the youth to oust a tyrannical and corrupt regime once again,” it noted.

In November 2016, the late Marcos was buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB), a resting place dedicated for heroes as its name suggests. His controversial burial earned both praises and criticisms from the public.

The former Philippine leader died in 1989 due to lung, kidney, and liver complications.