MANILA – Ilocos Norte governor Imee Marcos was criticized for calling on Filipinos to “move on” from the martial law under her father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
The Marcos family should “apologize” and “express remorse” first before they ask critics of the late dictator to move on, according to the Liberal Party.
Filipinos have not forgotten the abuses under the martial law because the Marcoses refuse to admit liability or wrongdoing, said Sen. Francis Pangilinan, the party president.
On the sidelines of the Visayan Island Cluster Conference of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines in Cebu City on Tuesday, Congresswoman Marcos said the conflict between the Marcoses and the Aquinos happened “a long time ago” and that Filipinos should “go forward.”
“It was never just an issue between the Marcoses and the Aquinos,” Pangilinan said in reference to former senator Benigno Aquino Jr., whose death prompted a historic mass that deposed the dictator, and wife Corazon, who replaced Marcos under a revolutionary government.
“More than anything, it was an issue between the Marcoses and the entire nation that suffered immensely from the abuses, the greed, and the oppressive and tyrannical rule of Marcos the dictator,” said Pangilinan.
Moreover the Marcos family continued to deny the billions of dollars they have stolen from the country, the Liberal Party president claimed.
“The Japanese Emperor, in his state visit to the Philippines in 2016, expressed deep remorse for the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army in the Philippines during World War II,” Pangilinan said.
“The Marcos family should do the same for the abuses and atrocities committed to tens of thousands of Filipinos under martial law,” he said.
According to the party official, the Marcos family should “return what they plundered to the country” and “stop using this same unexplained wealth to lie and rewrite history.”
“When these happen, then we can all talk about and consider moving on,” said Pangilinan./PN
