Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr during a press conference held in Seda Hotel in Davao City on May 6, 2016. (Ace R. Morandante/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY– Despite being the late dictator’s son, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. got high ratings in the vice presidential race, prompting the question, are the Marcoses forgiven?
As of 11:57 AM, Wednesday, May 11, the partial and unofficial result showed Marcos in a tight race with the Liberal Party vice presidential-bet Camarines Sur Rep. Maria Leonora Robredo who has 13,951,352 votes. Marcos is next with 13,719,659 votes. He is followed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano with 5,641,707 votes, Sen. Francis Escudero with 4,792,266 votes, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV with 815,184 votes and Sen. Gringo Honasan with 755,771 votes.
“A big no,” said activist Fe Carreon Salino of Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda) in Davao City. Selda is an organization of former political detainees during Martial law.
She said that win or lose, they will stand against Senator Marcos and his family.
Salino explained that the Marcoses haven’t shown any remorse for their family’s sins.
“They are arrogant and are not remorseful for their sins committed especially to the martial law victim detained, tortured, enforced, disappeared, raped and killed, massacred and those were farmers and Moro people,” Salino said.
“We vow never again to Martial Law, to never forget martial law and we will continue campaigning against it,” she said.
Salino said that one of the reasons why most voters voted Sen. Marcos is because of the lack of knowledge of the young generation as to what really happened during the Martial Law period.
“This was one of the problems of the Department of Education during the time of (President Corazon Aquino). They did not remember to include what really happened during the Martial Law,” Salino said.
Adam Jambangan, a political science professor and a law student of Ateneo de Davao University said he agreed with Selda that on history books need to be reviewed, but thinks that it is not the main reason why Bongbong Marcos got a high number of votes on the elections.
According to him, there are three reasons why voters voted for Sen. Marcos despite being the dictator’s son.
“The first one is, Marcos influence is still strong even after his father was toppled down in 1986. Second is, the people really clamored for change to the point that they gave scant consideration of history and that people are willing to risk one more time. The last one, is that some of them do not have another option,” he said.
In a press conference held at the Seda Hotel here three days before the elections, Marcos claimed that his win will “safeguard” Duterte’s position. He said if he wins as Duterte’s Vice President, those who plan to impeach Duterte will not do so since they wouldn’t want Marcos to be President.
“I think yung mga mag i-impeach kay Mayor Digong (Duterte), hindi siya i-impeach kung ako ang bise. Dahil hindi nila malunok na ako ang gagawin nilang president. So, I suppose the best way to safeguard Mayor Duterte would be to have me as his vice president because siguradong hindi siya tatanggalin dahil ako ang papalit sa kanya, also talagang hindi nila gagawin. That’s the good way to safeguard his position,” he said.
Robredo has already denied that the Liberal Party has a “Plan B” to impeach Duterte and for her to replace him as President as alleged by Marcos.
Change for the worst
Professor Don Pagusara, a Palanca-awardee and also a Martial law victim shared that the change the people wants to achieve in a Marcos leadership is a “change for the worst.”
“The danger there is a possibility that Bongbong will automatically take over Duterte,” Pagusara said.
He said that it is not the question of forgiving, “but the purpose of the Marcoses in coming back to Malacañang.”
As the results of the elections will be out soon, Pagusara said the Filipino people must remain vigilant.
Bonifacio Ilagan convenor of the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang (Carmma) said in a statement that they will hound Marcos “to expose and oppose the Marcos’ scheme to rehabilitate thieves and torturers without having to account to their victims and the whole nation.”
“As far as pursuing truth, freedom, and justice is concerned, we are never giving up. Assuming that the Marcos grand deceit succeeds and the son of the dictator wins, the fight, as far as we are concerned, will just have begun. Elections are just a phase in the continuing people’s struggle for national freedom and democracy,” Ilagan said. (davaotoday.com)
