Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate and Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr (Photo from Facebook Account of Bongbong Marcos)
DAVAO CITY — A former journalist during Martial Law and currently a Congressional Partylist representative said the possibility of Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos winning as vice president in the May elections is “a tragedy”.
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said Senator Marcos is “not only unapologetic- even defensive” of the many sins of his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos who declared Martial Law.
“He even refuses to acknowledge the gross abuses during the time of Martial Law. It is ominous that he is so close to the highest position in the land,” Zarate said.
“It is a tragedy if Sen. Marcos wins the second highest position in the country. Many families lost their best and brightest sons and daughters fighting the regime that violated democratic rights, plundered our coffers, and abused the rights of the people,” he said.
Zarate also called the senator as one who represents “the worst of state terrorism, plunder, and tyranny.”
“Sen. Marcos has a twisted, self-serving and revisionist version of the dictatorship’s grievous crimes. He glosses over the grave human rights abuses in the name of a so-called “new society ” during the time. In fact, during the relentless political repression, some 70,000 persons were arrested, 34,000 victims of torture, 3,240 summary executions, and 1,000 enforced disappearances during the bloody Marcos reign,” Zarate added.
Economic prosperity is also a manufactured myth, the lawmaker said.
“Under the Marcos regime, the country’s foreign debt skyrocketed from US$599 million in 1966 to US$26.7 billion in 1986. We are so sunken in debt that we have been paying the Marcos debt for the past 30 years since the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship and then some. We will be paying the Marcos debt, which mostly went to their own pockets, until 2025, or almost 40 years after Edsa,” Zarate said.
In the recent vice presidential survey by Pulse Asia, Marcos was “statistically tied” with his rival Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero. Escudero got 25 percent of the respondents, while Marcos got 22 percent, in the survey held from March 1-6. The survey has 1.9 percent error margin. (davaotoday.com)
