Marcos family denies dictatorship horrors, even 30 years after his ouster

Manila, Feb 25 (EFE). —  Even as the Philippines marks the 30th anniversary of the day dictator Ferdinand Marcos was forced to flee the country with his family following a popular and bloodless revolt, the former president’s clan continues to deny the horrors of the ironfisted regime he led in the 1970s and the 1980s.

“What am I to say sorry about?,” asked the only son of the dictator, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, in the face of continued calls from the country’s politicians and activists for a public apology from the family to all Filipinos.

The clamor has become louder as the country commemorates 30 years of the People Power Revolution, a threeday mass protest through which hundreds of thousands of citizens, armed with slogans and placards, managed to put an end to over two decades of the Marcos family calling the shots.

However, with Bongbong running for the vice presidency in the upcoming May elections, many fear the family may take hold of one of the highest positions once more, just three decades after being ousted.

“If he cannot even see the wrong in what his family did, how can we be confident that he will not repeat the same?,” asked current Philippine President Benigno Aquino, during commemoration celebrations for the Revolution.

Bongbong has never admitted his father’s rule was marred by human rights abuses, as claimed by tens of thousands of people who were illegally detained and tortured, or as indicated by the nearly 1,000 cases of forced disappearances.

The dictator’s son, now a senator, chooses to instead emphasize the supposed social and economic development that occurred under his father’s mandate, although various sources say the Marcos family left the country in ruins, misappropriating $5 billion to $10 billion worth of public money.

“Will I say sorry for the thousands and thousands of kilometers (of roads) that were built (...) Will I say sorry for the highest literacy rate in Asia?,” Bongbong, projected as a favorite by many opinion polls, has said in several public appearances in recent months.

As a way to restrain his popularity, many groups have organized campaigns to refresh the memory of those who experienced the dictatorship as well as educate those who were born after.

Boni Ilagan, a torture victim from the Marcosregime who was detained from 1974 to 1976 for alleged illegal possession of arms and explosives, is now one of the representatives of the “Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang, or CARMMA, who fears the adage ‘like father like son’ may well be true.

“He has neither admitted to nor apologized for what happened, giving us much reason to think he will do the same as his father,” Ilagan, 64, told EFE.

Ilagan’s “crime” consisted of being an active dissenter; he was part of a team that spearheaded clandestine cultural publications critical of Marcos.

“They tortured me endlessly for weeks, be it through hot irons to the soles of my feet or inserting sticks into my penis,” he describes, his eyes tearingup at the recollection.

His sister Rizalina Ilagan, who also participated in underground publications reporting Marcos’ crimes, is one among those who ‘disappeared.’

“Bongbong is not entirely blameless for what happened under the dictatorship as he says. When he was merely 23, he was named special advisor to the presidency by his father, and was perfectly aware of what was happening,” stresses the CARMMA activist, expressing the conviction that while Bongbong may never declare Martial Law as his father did, he will continue violating human rights.

86yearold Imelda, Marcos’s widow who allegedly hoarded jewels, paintings and real estate to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars during the period, and who currently represents Ilocos Norte in the Philippine House of Representatives, refuses to see it as one of the darkest periods in the country’s history, terming it in fact, as a “golden age” of the Philippines.

Their eldest daughter Imee, Ilocos Norte governor, has also never publicly admitted the atrocities committed during her father’s rule.