Militant lawmakers are not about to step on the brakes in their sharp riposte to former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s thoughts about the iron-hand rule of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Enrile, as defense chief, was the martial law administrator during the Marcos regime.
Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago said Enrile’s recollection about the martial law regime, which he made during an interview with former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., was a “clear attempt to deceive and misinform the public.”
Elago said it was “a grave insult” to those who had died fighting the Marcos dictatorship, regarded as one of the darkest periods in the country’s history.
“This deliberate attempt to whitewash and erase their existence and demise is part of the Marcoses’ calibrated efforts to rehabilitate themselves and go back to power,” she said in a statement.
“The youth and the people will frustrate this great treachery. We can and will never forget our martyrs and the generations before us who fought valiantly for our rights, freedoms against the mad dictator,” she said.
‘Fake history’
Act Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio said Enrile’s claim that nobody was tortured or arrested for criticizing Marcos was a travesty of the memories of those who fought to end the 14-year military rule, a period characterized by massive human rights abuses and corruption.
“If President Duterte has fake news, the Marcos family and Enrile have fake history,” Tinio said.
He assailed Marcos and Enrile for making public the video of their conversation as the nation marked the 46th year of the declaration of martial law.
“The message that thousands of Filipinos who attended the martial law anniversary wanted to send to Marcos, Enrile and Duterte is this: ‘There will be a day of reckoning for you,’” Tinio said. —Marlon Ramos