PHOTO: Gabriel Pabico Lalu, INQUIRER.net
Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos said a statement she had earlier made was an apology to those who were unintentionally affected by her father’s military-backed rule.
She also added that it is not different from apologies that she has already given.
“I said on many, many occasions that for those who were inadvertently pained, certainly, we apologize,” Marcos said in a forum on Friday.
“But what I’ve heard is that there are calls for an apology tantamount on admission, which we would never do,” she added.
When asked what admission that would be, Marcos shrugged it off, saying she does not know what her family should admit to in the first place.
In the early part of the forum, she clarified that she never asked people to forget history but to learn from the mistakes and the opportunities that got past the country.
“Hindi ko naman sinasabi na kalimutan ‘yong nakaraan, kung hindi ang ating sinasaad eh, ‘yong kasaysayan ang pinakamahusay na guro,” the Ilocos Norte leader said.
“Kailangang matutunan natin ang pagkakamali, marami tayong kapalpakan, at mga sinayang na pagkakataon na sana umunlad ang ating bansa, sana sa kabila ng pagnanais natin talagang umusad, ay talagang dibdibin natin ang mga natutunan nating pagkakamali ng nakaraan,” she added.
The rule of the late President Ferdinand Marcos that spanned 21 years was marred with allegations of attacking administration critics, state-sponsored killings, forced disappearances, and an economic meltdown.
According to previous reports, there were 1,838 cases of enforced disappearances from 1971 to 1986, more than a thousand are still missing, 435 have returned alive, and 256 were found dead.
READ: What went before: 1,838 desaparecidos since Marcos
‘Nakakapagod na’
In an ambush interview after the forum, Marcos requested reporters to just read her previous statement instead of asking her over and over again.
“I don’t know why we’re rehashing this news over and over again. I’ve said it before, why don’t we just look up old quotes, nakapapagod na siya eh, paulit-ulit,” she asked.
Marcos was recently put in the spotlight after saying Filipinos should move on, as millennials have done so, with the issues involving her family.
Critics from various sectors have denounced Marcos’ claims, with some groups reminding her that the youth of today were instrumental in protests against her father’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. /muf
READ: Ex-Senator Marcos says issues on father’s rule already done
READ: Imee forgot millennials protested her pa’s hero’s burial, youth group says