MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The return of the Marcos family in power caused no worries to President Benigno Aquino III as Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. runs for vice president.
Aquino said there will be no resurgence of support for the Marcoses. “I have faith in my bosses, the Filipino people. There was nothing that has caused me to change the faith that they are able to discern,” Aquino said in an interview with GMA News.
Aquino noted that his administration showed “the democratic system in this country” in contrast with the Martial Law era, in which Sen. Bongbong’s father has implemented during his tenure of office.
“There is a period in time that contrary opinions were not encouraged, that somehow they were involved in the periphery of. In our watch, contrary opinions are part and parcel and protected in the democratic space that we have managed to really strengthen within our watch,” he said.
Aquino also added the Marcos family should also apologize for the implementation of Martial Law in the Philippines.
“I’m also of the belief that we shouldn’t revisit the sins of the children on the parents [but] the start of the solution is the identification of the problem” he said.
With Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos seeking for a higher post in the government, it has been discussed the need of the Marcos family to apologize for the late president’s regime.
“I’m also of the belief that we shouldn’t revisit the sins of the children on the parents [but] the start of the solution is the identification of the problem” he said to GMA News.
“If there is a denial of what happened, is that also a statement that there is no recognition that should be corrected down the line and therefore, is there a promise that there will be repetition of the same? That is our question,” he added.
Meanwhile, presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago said the Marcos family doesn’t owe an apology to the public over the implementation of Martial Law, and she chose Sen. Bongbong Marcos as her running mate in next year’s elections.
“I don’t think that on a family basis, the Marcoses as a family owe us an apology. In the first place, it was not the case that President Marcos the father pooled all the Marcoses in one table and they all decided jointly to do certain activities,” Santiago said.
“That was not the case…. This was all a result not of a familial discussion but a result of policy decisions of the executive department of the government—President Marcos and his advisers,” she added.